


in the shape of the dead

by novaquill



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: 4 +1 things, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Drug Use, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Gore, Protective Everyone, Protective Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Protective Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Self-Harm, Team as Family, Temporary Character Death, Timeline What Timeline, Umbrella Academy fusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:02:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25927837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novaquill/pseuds/novaquill
Summary: Nile thought she had all of the puzzle pieces, ones she'd collected and ones her teammates had filled in, and she was ready to see the full picture. But as she watches Nicky advance on the man like a predator waiting to strike, she realizes that she'd been looking at the picture all wrong. She'd imagined many different ways Nicky's powers would manifest themselves in combat, but not this...Never this.(or: four times Nile got glimpses of Nicky's ability and one time she saw it in full force)
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 70
Kudos: 641





	1. Chapter 1

Each of them has a power. While, yes, immortality in itself would be considered by many a superpower, its novelty has worn off and has instead become a fact of life (oh, the irony) for Nile. She isn’t sure why and neither do the others (she remembers asking Andy about it and getting a reply similar to when she questioned immortality – “I don’t know, kid, it just is.”). Their powers manifested after they gained immortality, whether it be moments after their first death, in Joe, Nicky and Nile’s case, or years after they are reborn, in Andy and Booker’s case.  
  
Nile’s seen them use their powers, combined with their immortality, to become a true army of five.  
  
Andy is strong. She’s seen Andy lift men twice her size and throw them like they weighed nothing. Nile had even seen her grab onto the axel of a car their mark was trying to flee in and keep it there without so much breaking a sweat, not to mention when she began lifting said car and dumping their mark on the ground. Nile laughed every time Andy would walk to the living room, see one of the boys sitting in _her_ chair and proceed to flip the chair, throwing them to the floor unceremoniously while Andy reclaimed her throne.  
  
Booker is accurate. She has seen Booker hold four daggers in his hands and throw them in four different directions, each hitting their intended target in the same spot. Nile pities the flies that fly in their hideouts, as he pins their wings to the walls with kitchen knives as he sits on the couch, watching television. She once asked why Booker wasn’t the sniper on missions, and the laughter from the others quickly destroyed that train of thought – maybe his accuracy had its limits?

Nile is transient. She can be everywhere she needs to be in the blink of an eye with a flash of blue light. She has been able to get the jump on multiple targets by appearing behind them through a portal. Nile can teleport to places she’s seen or that she can picture in her head and it’s come in handy when they need to get out of situations quickly. Joe often jokes that he wished they’d found her centuries ago, stating that using portals to get to their destinations would have saved many a hassle.

Joe is convincing. She’s heard the way he talks to Nicky, how words flow out of him like a river, but those kind romantic words are not the same ones she hears him tell others. He just has to say those magic words: “I dreamt that…” with whatever he wishes and the mind bends to his will. He rarely uses his power unless he has to, as it is often difficult to speak full sentences to enemies in the heat of a battle. Joe outright refuses to show Nile how his powers work until they are in battle, not wanting to manipulate those closest to him, even if he claims they wouldn’t remember it anyway- Nile doesn’t push the topic further as she tries to ignore the implications.

Nicky is…

Nile cannot think of a word to describe Nicky. Not for lack of trying, but rather that she isn’t sure what word would be best suited to describe someone who she isn’t actually even sure has a power. She thinks back to dinners when powers were discussed and Nicky sat there, following the conversation but never joining in, other than to give small, vague details, like when he first realized his power the moment he was reborn, saying “I saw a crowd of corpses, and in the middle stood the man I had killed, the one who had killed me.”

Nile wonders if maybe, immortality is truly his power and he never developed a second one. She tries asking the others but Andy and Booker both give her the same vague answer of it’s not their place to tell. Joe tells her his power is his ability to stay kind in an unkind world, which was as endearing as it comes with Joe, but also was entirely unhelpful.

Nile was determined to get a straightforward answer out of Nicky to find out what his powers were – if he had one at all.

i. Nile doesn’t startle awake as much as she just… wakes up. She turns to her alarm clock and groans at the time displayed.

She tosses and turns, trying to _stop thinking_ and fall back asleep. No matter the meditation techniques she uses, she can tell the stress from the previous day outweighs the bone deep exhaustion she had felt when she collapsed onto her bed.

Her stomach growls and she curses past Nile for not eating anything on their way back from their mission. She vaguely remembers seeing a few fruits and granola bars in the kitchen the day before and she hopes they are still there, and more than that, that they are _edible_.

Nile swings her legs over the side of the bed. She contemplates teleporting herself but quickly decides against it. The last time she had tried teleporting someone while utterly exhausted, Andy and Nile had landed in France, while Joe and Booker had ended up in Australia and Nicky in Canada. It had taken a week for everyone to meet back up and fully rest after the mission.

She sighs and slips on a pair of sandals. The trip to the kitchen isn’t a long one by any means: Nile takes all of twenty steps before she is turning the corner and-  
She freezes mid-step. The kitchen light is on. Nile quickly tucks herself back behind the corner and steadies her breathing. She looks and listens for any signs of intruders but doesn’t find any after a few quiet moments.

All she hears is Nicky’s voice, asking someone about a cup of tea.

Nile could understand why Nicky would be up at this hour, the mission form yesterday had been a tough one for him- he had almost been burned alive and then had his arm ripped off only to bleed out on the drive back to the safe house. Nile had heard the others talking about how even after centuries, after millennia, that some deaths hit harder than others.

As Nile goes to turn the corner to greet Nicky in the kitchen, she stops herself yet again as she hears a second voice.

“You didn’t see Quynh this time, did you?” Nile recognizes it as Andy, her tone hopeful yet somehow resigned all at once.

“I did not,” Nicky replies. “but that could be a good thing.”

Nile doesn’t understand. Between the mission prep and the mission itself, the group hadn’t been apart in the past three days. When would Nicky have had time to sneak off and somehow see Quynh (who, Nile thinks, they had said was at the bottom of the ocean)? What did Andy mean by _this time_? Maybe Nicky helped Andy with jobs on the side to aid her in her search for Quynhs watery tomb?

“I wonder if it’ll be less painful if you just start seeing her. At least that way we would know,” Andy replies.

“Andy, I do not pretend to know the pain you feel at the loss of your love for so long, but do know that the moment I do see her, I will let her know how much we searched, how long you searched, and that she is loved and missed,” Nile hears a chair move and can only assume Nicky has taken Andy’s hand in his own. “I am sorry that I cannot offer more, but know this, Andromache: I will make sure you have the chance to say whatever it is you need to tell her.”

Nile still isn’t sure what exactly it is they are discussing other than Quynh, but even she feels tears swell in her eye at Nicky’s words. His words seemed so sincere, every word imbued with a piece of his heart he was offering up to Andy. Although the conversation reads like one they’ve had for centuries, Nicky’s words sound genuine and caring. For as long as she has known Nicky, he has never been the one with many words, rather expressing his love through actions, but that just made every word he said carry more weight and meaning.

Nile is pretty sure she hears Andy stifle back a sob before she hears a soft thud and realises the two are probably hugging.

She feels like an intruder, a voyeur of this incredibly intimate moment between two people who had lived through enough violence and death to last a million lifetimes.  
She quickly turns back and tells herself that this is the time to go back to her room, pretend like she hadn’t heard their conversation.

Before she can retreat back to her room, a hand grasps her wrist. Nile gasps and turns back to see Andy holding her.

“Nile,” Andy whispers, her question evident in that single word.

“I-I’m sorry, I got up to grab a snack,” Nile explains. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

Andy simply nods, letting her fingers slowly peel off of Nile’s wrist.

“It’s alright, you’re one of us now, Nile,” Andy smiles and Nile notices that it doesn’t quite make it to her eyes. “Just caught me in a more… personal moment that’s all. You should grab something quick and try and get some more sleep – we leave first thing in the morning for England.”

Andy pats her shoulder and walks back down the hallway towards her room.

Nile turns the corner to find Nicky sitting at the kitchen table, cup of tea in hand.

“There is enough left for a cup if you want one. It is chamomile,” he offers, already getting out of his seat to grab a cup.

Nile nods and thanks him. “Could I have a little bit of honey in it, please?”

“Of course, just a moment.”

Nile grabs an apple off the counter on her way to the chairs. She sits in the one that Andy had presumably been sat in moments ago.

Nicky hands her a mug that smells heavenly and she sips it slowly as they talk for a few minutes. She is already up later than she’d like, considering their early day, but talking to Nicky had always been easy.

That’s what makes her stop as she replays the conversation she’d overheard earlier in her head. She still feels uneasy having heard it so she almost restrains herself from asking, but the curiosity in her trumps her unease.

“Nicky,” she almost whisper, folding her hands around the warm mug, staring down into the soothing liquid. “I overheard you and Andy talking earlier – I didn’t mean to, I was up to get a snack and I didn’t want to interrupt your moment.”

He reaches over and grabs her hand gently, squeezing her fingers. “Nile, it’s alright. It wasn’t a secret conversation, merely something that we don’t discuss often. We are here to answer any questions you have.”

She looks up at him and smiles. “I guess, I don’t really know how to ask this,” she takes a breath, trying to form a cohesive idea. “I still see Quynh, in my dreams. I haven’t met her, but you have. So I guess my question is… do you somehow still see Quynh in your dreams too?”

Nicky raises his eyebrows, leaning back into his chair. “It is… difficult to explain, I have not seen her but I will eventually, one day – though it will not be in my dreams that I see her.”

“Okay, you’re definitely going to have to elaborate on that.”

Nicky lets out a small huff of laughter that Nile can’t help but mirror. “Yes, yes. It is my ability – every time I die, I come back to life shortly after,” he rests his elbows on the table in front of him.

“So your ability is your immortality?”

“Not quite - my ability is linked to that time in between death and rebirth. When I die, I sometimes see people. Usually it is people who have also recently died, but sometimes I see those who are linked to me.”

“Is that why Andy asked you about Quynh?”

Nicky nods, keeping his head down and looking at his folded hands. “I understand her frustration – if I were to see Quynh in the time in between, it would be an answer to a question we’ve had since… since we lost her. Andy feels torn about this: it would be a relief to _know_ but getting that knowledge means she’s lost her other half forever.”

“Wow, that’s… a lot to take in,” Nile sips at her tea, taking a deep breath.

“It is indeed, so please, take your time with it, I will always be here to answer any questions you have, Nile,” he sounds so caring that Nile can’t help but get out of her seat and give him a hug.

A beat passes before they separate. “Is there anything you want to see while we are in England?” Nicky asks.

Nile is glad for the change of subject – she has more questions but it is getting late and she is starting to feel the calming effects of the tea. She nods and tells him about places she’d like to visit, things to do if they get any time off during their stay.

They continue making small talk about everything and nothing for a few minutes before they hear a voice call out, “Nicolo?”

Both their heads turn to the room closest to the kitchen – the one Joe and Nicky shared.

Nicky chuckles and excuses himself from the table. “Joe has never been a morning person, and he’s even grumpier if I am not there to wake up beside him. You should try and get some sleep too, Nile. Have a good night,” he says, patting her on the shoulder.

“Yeah, you too. Thanks again for the tea.”

Nile finishes her mug and walks to the sink. She puts all three of the glasses in, quickly washes them and puts them out to dry.

As she walks back to her own room, she passes Joe and Nicky’s. Both men are asleep judging by the soft snoring, Joe’s face buried in the junction between Nicky’s neck and shoulder.

Nile sighs as she sinks into her bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter tags: Discussions of death, single mention of blood and violence,
> 
> This entire story is just me practicing some good ol' self-indulgence. they did my boy Klaus dirty in Umbrella Academy and i'm sad we haven't seem them explore his powers more. Then I thought I wanted to explore how these immortal people (who -lets face it- already have a superpower) would use their other abilities and how someone with Klaus' powers would deal with having the dead follow him around for over 900 years. 
> 
> I have adjusted everyone's abilities a tiny bit for the sole purpose of making other fics in this universe easier to justify... Nevertheless, they stay true enough to their shows counterparts, at least I hope.


	2. Chapter 2

ii. Undercover missions were never Nile’s favourite, but now they are definitely falling a few places.

She and Nicky were posing as potential buyers at an underground auction. They were there to collect information and to identify anyone from their files.

It was smooth sailing… until it wasn’t.

Nile still isn’t sure where they slipped up, but somehow the dealers had grown suspicious of their sudden appearance and their lack of background. Apparently they had made _too_ much of a good impression.

She remembers whispering to Nicky that she had identified one of the attendees as one of the men from the files and then everything got hazy, until she woke up in this room.

Nile looks around the barren and dusty room – a stereotypical hostage room that she used to see in movies – and takes note of the single entry way, the lack of windows and the noise emanating from above.

Her hands are bound behind her back with zip ties and her legs tied to the chairs legs with rope. She tests her bindings, trying to find any weakness, any give and sighs when there isn’t any. Maybe the people who captured them weren’t as amateur as they thought.

She could easily portal herself out of here, but she can’t reach Nicky. She sure as hell wasn’t going to leave him behind so Nile gets as comfortable as she can.

Nile hears a groan next to her. Nicky must be awake.

“Hello Sleeping Beauty,” she says, a small smile on her face.

“Nile,” he breathes.

Nile watches him go through the same process she did: testing the restraints and surveying the room for possible exit strategies. He comes to the same conclusion she did and the tension he held slowly falls away, his body sagging against the chair.

There is a beat of silence between the two of them, the only noise coming from above.

“You should go,” Nicky whispers.

Nile immediately opens her mouth to protest but Nicky’s pointed glare stops her.

“You can get out, and go get the others,” he orders. He is speaking fast and quietly enough that his words almost all blur together.

She shakes her head. “Nicky, if they come back and I’m not here, they’re going to ask questions!”

“That is not important! I’ve been in these situations before – I can handle this.”

“Oh, and I can’t? We’re a _team,_ Nicky – no one gets left behind.”

He sighs and Nile knows she’s won this dispute. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Nile. I didn’t mean to imply… that. We will figure another way out.”

She nods, finally allowing herself a small smile. “We should find a way out before they figure out -”

“Figure out… what exactly?” a voice says from the doorway.

Nile immediately turns to the new arrival and glares daggers.

The man that walks in is one of the men who was in their files – Jean-Pierre ‘J.P’ Dufort. Nile had laughed when she first saw his photo, confusing the others when she called him a ‘discount Alton Brown’ – apparently none of them had ever watched Cutthroat kitchen.

Silence reigns as neither she nor Nicky do anything but scowl at the man.

“I said, figure out what exactly?” J.P asks, taking a step forward with each word until he was face to face with Nile.

She looks to Nicky, whose eyes are still trained on the man in front of her, his jaw clenched.

Nile can’t help but chuckle as she decides to entertain their captor. “I said,” she uses what little leeway she has in her restraints to lean in as close as she could. “before they figure out their boss looks like the discount Alton Brown.”

A brief flash of pain erupts from her cheek as her head is thrown to the side. Nile thinks she hears Nicky let out a _growl_. J.P quickly pulls his hand back before he readjusts his glasses and his hair.

She laughs as she turns her head, the sting almost faded already.

“Well, we already know you two aren’t interested in buying anything tonight,” he snaps his fingers and suddenly two men come in, carrying a table. “and since you don’t seem too keen on sharing, I guess we’ll just have to find another way to get the information we’re looking for.”

Moments after the table is placed on the ground, another guard comes in with a gun in one hand and a bundle in the other.

 _Oh good, torture._ Nile rolls her eyes. _Could this kidnapping get any more cliché?_

“And don’t you worry,” Taking the bundle from the guard, J.P. places it on the table and rolls it out, displaying various stereotypical “interrogation” weapons. “we can be _very_ convincing.”

Nicky snorts. Nile isn’t a mind reader but she can guess at what he’s thinking: this man was nowhere near as convincing as Joe could be. When J.P. looks at him, he schools his features back into the cold and stoic expression from before.

J.P. walks around the table, trailing his fingers along the cold plastic surface. He makes it to the end of the table before he turns back and picks up a pair of pliers.

“These never seem to fail in these kinds of situations,” he says, squeezing them a few times, as if testing their strength. He takes the few steps needed to be in front of Nicky and bends down, putting his hands on his knees, to stare into his eyes.

“Now, if you just tell me _who_ you are and _what_ you’re doing here,” he says slowly. J.P. lifts his free hand, grabbing Nicky’s chin. Nicky tries shaking it away but the grip just gets tighter as Nile sees J.P’s fingers push in on his cheeks. “this doesn’t have to get ugly,” he turns Nicky’s head so he’s facing Nile, but his blue-green eyes are still trained on J.P. “for either of you.”

A chill ran down Nile’s spine as Nicky slowly shifts his eyes from their captor’s to lock onto Nile’s. Nicky’s eyes weren’t like the sad, weary eyes Booker and Andy had – Nicky and Joe had eyes that always seemed bright, full of love and _young_.

Looking at Nicky in this moment and seeing such anger behind his eyes makes Nile’s skin crawl. She had seen him in battle before with that same look but that was always at a glance, in the midst of a fight. Seeing the look up close was akin to looking a bull in the horns.

J.P. lets go of his face roughly and takes a step back, standing in front of both of them. “Last chance to tell me what I want to know before I have to start… getting creative.”

Nicky turns his head to look at J.P and he tilts his head to the side while Nile glares daggers.

A sigh escapes J.P. “Fine, then, have it your way, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He signals to the men who had brought the table in and Nicky and Nile each get their jaws forced upward. The man behind Nile has a hand on her throat and the other applying pressure on her cheeks, forcing her mouth open – she can only assume Nicky is getting the same treatment.

From the corner of her eye, Nile can see J.P. take a step towards Nicky once again and bring the pliers closer to his face, near his mouth. Nicky doesn’t even flinch as the pliers go into his mouth.

J.P. stops and retracts the pliers. “Maybe we’ll have to try a different approach for this one,” he sighs, as if he were talking about a problem needing to be solved rather than torture. “We’ll start with the girl.”

Nicky starts struggling in his seat against the man restraining him and Nile wants so badly to look into his eyes again and tell him _it’s alright, I can handle this_. It almost makes her cry thinking how Nicky was more than willing to take the punishment without a sound and would die trying to save others from the same fate.

Nile tries to breathe through her nose and braces herself for the pain. She closes her eyes and prays that her teeth will heal and grow back just like any other part of her body would. She hears her own heartbeat and she focuses on that sound, drowns out everything else.

She feels the cold press of the pliers against her cheek, the jaws settling on either side of her tooth and –

The pain never comes. Instead, she feels the pliers slowly retract from her mouth.

Nile opens an eye and squints at the harsh light above her. J.P. is still hunched in front of her, but his head is turned towards Nicky.

“What did you just say?” he asks, motioning for the man holding Nicky to release his grip on his mouth – the hand on his throat remained.

“Martin Allick,” Nicky says slowly. The name doesn’t ring a bell for Nile – it wasn’t in the files nor was it the name of any of the attendees for the night’s auction – but Nicky says it as if it is a key piece of information. “the man you had killed two days ago in a car wreck.”

 _How do you know that?_ Nile wants to ask, but restrains herself. She wasn’t sure what plan Nicky was going for, but she would back him up.

“How the _fuck_ do you know about that?” J.P. roars, pointing the pliers in Nicky’s direction.

Nicky seemed unfazed by his outburst as he continued listing names. “Juliette Norris, Henry Reynolds, Shania Bleutz – heart attack, allergic reaction, home invasion. All of them were supposed to testify against you and you had them killed.”

“Stop! I asked, _how the hell do you know all that?_ ” their captor asks, face turning red with rage. Every word is pronounced with a jab of the pliers to the chest.

A small smile creep onto Nicky’s face and he chuckles. “I guess you could say, I have… friends on the other side.”

“Did any of you idiots say anything?” J.P. looks to his guards, who shake their heads. He walks away from Nicky, motioning for the guards to follow him towards the door. “Then find out _who did_ and see if anyone else knows!”

Nicky turns to Nile quicker than she’s ever seen him move. “Nile,” he whispered in a hush tone – the same one he had used when first figuring out a plan. “they will kill me. When they do, get out of your restraints.”

She isn’t able to reply before she hears footsteps and Nicky returns to his front facing position, no readable expression on his face.

“I’m not sure why I even bother since you haven’t been forthcoming so far but I’ll ask: _who told you all of that?_ ” J.P. is clearly getting desperate, Nile can see the veins on his neck and the beginnings of sweat on his forehead.

“They did.”

“Who is _they_?”

“The people you had murdered, your _victims_.”

“Fine, then. Don’t tell me… I’m sure we can get all the information we need out of your friend over here,” J.P. looks to the man standing behind Nicky motioned him forward. “Get rid of him.”

Before she can even think to start struggling, the guard aims his gun at Nicky’s forehead and fires. Nile flinches at the sound. When she opens her eyes, she sees Nicky’s head flop backwards, blood running down from the bullet hole.

The man that had just murdered Nicky quickly cuts his bindings from the chair to dispose of the body.

She had to work fast, before they got rid of the body in who knows where, before Nicky resurrected, before they moved on to her. There were four opponents to take care of and she quickly devised a plan to kill them.

Nile feels the familiar hum and rush of heat around her hands and suddenly she is standing behind the chair, hands and feet free. She picks up the chair and swings it against her guard’s skull, sending him crumpling to the ground in a heap. The back of the chair shatters as it makes contact but she is able to pick up two of the legs.

A second jump and she is behind the man who had shot Nicky. One sweep of the leg sends him to the ground and one chair leg protruding from his chest sees blood leave his body and his life leave his eyes. She cringes as she hears Nicky’s body fall to the stone ground with a _thud_ , but it can’t be helped as there are more important matters at hand.

Two men down, two to go.

Nile grabs the gun of the man she just killed and teleports behind the man stationed by the door. She pistol-whips him in the back of the head and shoots him twice in the chest.

“W-w-what are you?” she trains her gun to the sound and finds J.P. frozen in place. A puddle of blood begins to creep towards his feet – no doubt a mixture of his guards’ and Nicky’s.

Nile takes a step forward, aiming the gun at his head.

“P-Please, I can offer you whatever you want,” J.P. pleads. He offers her money and art and drones on about how useful he could be.

He doesn’t seem to hear the _clink_ of a bullet landing on the ground nor the grunt of discomfort that soon follows.

Nile keeps the gun trained on J.P. even as Nicky reaches out with his hands and _twists_ his head with a sickening crack. J.P. falls to the ground as gracefully as a ton of bricks.

“ _Asshole_ ,” Nicky spits out in Italian. He looks to Nile and his expression immediately softens. “Are you alright?”

She nods. “How about you?”

He smiles at her and she’s relieved to see the familiar expression back on his face.

“Now come on, let’s get out of here and back to the others _. Together_ ,” she says, holding out her hand. He grabs it and within seconds they are back above ground, in an alleyway, a few blocks from their current base of operations.

They move through the streets quickly and once they arrive at their destination, they are greeted by Joe, Booker and Andy, all asking questions about what had happened. Nile gives them a quick rundown of the night as Joe picks out flecks of dried blood and brain matter from Nicky’s hair. As she finished explaining, Nicky insists she go have a shower to unwind after the stressful mission.

She wants to ask him questions but as she takes in her ruined clothes and the scent of blood and gunpowder that stains her nostrils, she decides a nice hot shower was the best option for now.

As she walks out of the washroom after her shower, she overhears Joe and Nicky talking in their room. She glances and sees Nicky sprawled out sideways on the bed, his legs dangling off the edge and his head resting in Joe’s lap.

“ _How bad was it in there_?” Joe asks, his hand running through Nicky’s hair, finding the last few pieces of dried blood.

“ _I only named four, but the room was full of them_ ,” Nicky says in an almost whisper, turning his head towards Joe and sighing.

She gently knocks the doorframe to get their attention. “Uh, the washroom is open now if you wanted to have a shower too, Nicky.”

Joe is the one who answers. “Thank you, Nile. I’ll make sure he gets cleaned up. I’ve loved this man for almost a millennia but even I’m starting not to be able to handle the smell…”

Without moving his head, Nicky brings up one of his hands and gently slaps Joe’s chest, letting out a breathy chuckle.

Nile smiles at them and goes back into her room to grab a book before joining Andy and Booker in the kitchen.

The questions she had died the moment she saw how _tired_ Nicky was. She would get another chance tomorrow to ask him about how he had known about the victims and all of the details he shared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter tags: Implications of torture, mild gore, implied/referenced murder, temporary character death.
> 
> This one is based off the scene in 1x04 "Man on the Moon" where Klaus gets information about Hazel and Cha-cha from their dead victims. I thought it fit well to the gang's line of work.
> 
> the gratuitous Cutthroat Kitchen reference is only there because that's what was on while I was writing it and I am not very good at picturing people in my head without a visual reference, and so I gave the bad guy one lol


	3. Chapter 3

iii. They were there to take down a crime ring that was extorting families and had kidnapped several children as collateral. The goal was to get in, get the children to safety and then kill their way through the criminal organization without raising suspicion.

The mission had gone smoothly - all of the children were accounted for and the criminals were nothing more than blood stains in the halls of the compound.

Nicky looks up suddenly and insists there was another child they had missed before running back into the heart of the building.

Nile wonders how he would have known that, as the number of children they saved matches the amount they were told, but she snaps out of it and follows Andy’s orders to get the children they have now to safety.

The rest of them make their way to the exit and when they arrive Joe herds the children into the vehicles to take them back, Booker covers their left side and Nile their right.

When Andy had said they would be driving, Nile had offered to use her powers for transportation but Andy had gently refused, saying “We don’t know your limit for your powers yet, how many people you can bring, how many trips you can make without exhausting yourself. Too many variables when there are innocents at stake.”

“Plus, it doesn’t seem as if the ones who hired us know about our… talents, so best keep it to ourselves unless we absolutely have to,” Booker had added. “It would be difficult to explain how we got seven kids to safety without having driven.”

Nile had conceded that they were valid points, but she regrets not insisting more the longer they wait for Nicky to come back out of the compound.

She almost suggests they head out with the kids they have now while she waits for Nicky when she hears the door to the compound open, training her gun towards the sudden noise.

Small, trembling hands hold themselves up as a small girl, no older than twelve, takes a few tentative steps outside before sprinting towards the other children.

Andy wraps the child in her arms, takes note of the blood sprayed across her shirt and asks her if she’s alright. The girl nods shakily and Andy moves her to safety with the other children.

The unspoken question lingers as Nile meets her teammate’s eyes: _Where is Nicky?_

Just as Joe takes a step forward to go in the compound himself, there is another noise from the door.

It’s Nicky, blood smeared on his face and his expression neutral, eyes trained forward. He is carrying a bundle in his arms, covered by a blanket. A hand falls out from beneath the blanket and Nile almost gags.

Nicky was carrying the body of a dead child.

No one says anything as he gets into the back of the second vehicle and closes the door behind him.

Andy looks to Joe and nods towards the door Nicky had just closed. “You go with him, it’s always worse when it’s kids,” she says, almost in a whisper, before turning to Nile. “Nile, you drive with them. Book and I have the other car.”

Nile nods and follows Joe to the other vehicle and they drive off. They would be meeting the people that hired them at a house just outside the city.

Ten minutes after they leave, she looks in the mirror and sees Nicky staring at the ground, the child’s body still laying gently in his lap. Joe has moved closer to him and puts his hand on one side of Nicky’s head and gently places a kiss to his temple before dropping his hand to rest atop Nicky’s.

Nile doesn’t dare ask any questions, she isn’t sure she would get any answers anyway. She just watches them through occasional glances in the rear-view mirror.

The ride is mostly silent and Nile is almost grateful for the silence as it isn’t an awkward one but rather one of understanding.

While she was in the marines, she had seen things- she had seen death take women, men, and children alike, but it never got easier to see a life taken so violently.

She is surprised when it’s Nicky who breaks the silence, dragging her out of her thoughts as they arrive at their destination.

“Four minutes, Yusuf,” he whispers in English before switching to Italian. “ _we missed him by four minutes_.”

Joe cups Nicky’s face in his hands and rests their foreheads together. “ _There was no way we could’ve known beforehand, Nicolo._ ” He kisses him gently on the forehead.

Nile opens the side door and tells Nicky she can take the child from him. He thanks her but shakes his head.

“I owe it to him to do this myself.”

She nods and steps aside so he can make his way to the house. The people that hired them would be transporting the child’s body back to his family.

Nile turns to grab their bags out of the vehicle when she spots Joe still sitting inside, head resting on his hands.

She was surprised, she knew that Joe and Nicky weren’t joined at the hip but she very rarely had seen them apart, especially not after missions with less than ideal results.

She sighs and stops what she is doing. “Joe,” she looks to him. “Will Nicky be alright? I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so- so-” she pauses, trying to find the right word.

“So distant?” Joe offers.

Nile nods and he gives her a small smile and clasps his hand on her shoulder.

“We all have a relationship with death, but my Nicolo has a connection that runs deeper than our own,” he tells her, getting up and out of the vehicle. “just as the moon cannot stop its rotation with the sun, Nicolo is intrinsically tied to a cycle of shadows and light, to life and death.”

He gives her a gentle hug, tells her to get some rest and walks back to the house - back to Nicky.

Nile follows shortly after, deciding she would rather just teleport herself and the bags into the house than carry them all in.

She closes her eyes, and visualises her room in her mind. She hears the low hum, and her hands start to vibrate.

A flash of blue light, a feeling of weightlessness that lasts barely a second, and she’s in her room.

Nile wants nothing more than to jump into the shower and wash away the grime of the day. She checks to make sure no one else is in there and sighs happily when it is unoccupied.

She showers quickly and goes back to her room to change, cursing herself for forgetting to bring a change of clothes in with her.

Dressed in the comfiest clothes she could find, Nile makes her way to the kitchen to drop off everyone’s bags. Usually she would try and drop them off to everyone’s rooms, but each bag seemed to be almost identical and Nile was too tired to try and figure out which one belonged to who.

She sees Booker sitting at the table, cup of coffee in hand and an almost empty bottle of whiskey next to him.

He pours what little is left of the amber liquid into his coffee and promptly throws the bottle behind him into the garbage, getting it in seamlessly despite not turning around.

“Hey Booker,” she greets, setting the bags on the table, to Booker’s side. “Mind if I join you?”

He motions to the chair. “Be my guest.”

She opens her mouth to ask him questions, but the words die on her tongue as she thinks them. She isn’t sure she knows what she wants to ask, let alone _how_ to ask.

“The two kids -” she starts, finally having a semblance of a question in her head.

“It’s because of his ability,” Booker says suddenly, sighing.

She stares at him, mouth agape.

He just raises at eyebrow. “You were going to ask about that, right? How Nicky knew about the two other kids?”

“It’s just- I was trained to survey a room, look for the smallest details for clues about your environment. I know Nicky is a thousand years old and has seen a lot of things, but I didn’t see _anything_ that would mean there were more kids in there,” she explains. “I’m not accusing him of anything, Booker, I just want some sort of an answer.”

He nods along and gives her a small smile as he looks at her.

“When my son died. I had been away from the group when it had happened, I hadn’t told them about it but as soon as I saw them again, Nicky gave me a hug and told me he was sorry,” he laughs, an almost bitterness tinging the sound. “He’s got I guess what you would call a sixth sense when it comes to death.”

“So, he can sense when someone _dies_?” her voice trembles as she asks. “Wait… so that means- today at the compound, when he suddenly _knew_ there was another child… that means that he _felt_ -”

Booker nods, looking down at his coffee before taking a long sip. “…the moment the child died, yes.”

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” she runs a hand across her forehead and gets up to splash some water on her face. “How is that fair? We get powers like teleportation or super strength, and he gets a constant reminder of _death_?”

Joe’s words from earlier come back to her and she shudders at the thought of how long Nicky has had to deal with being part of this cycle of life and death.

“We don’t get to choose our powers, Nile. The same way we don’t choose to become immortal.” Booker gets up and walks over to her, resting his hands on her arms. “We live with the hand we’re dealt.”

“But people die all the time, Booker. Every minute, every _second_ , someone is dying somewhere in the world. And he just deals with it all?”

“His ability is different than ours, Nile: he can’t _stop_ using it, he doesn’t have a choice.”

“Do you think he sees us? When we die, do you think he can sense that? Before we come back, I mean,” she asks.

Booker brings her in for a hug and she gladly wraps her arms around his torso. “I don’t know,” he admits. “I know it’s not the answer you want to hear, especially with everything else I’ve told you. Truth is, I’ve never asked,” he lets out a small laugh that has no joy in it. “I think I’m afraid to hear the answer.”

Nile ponders his answer before she pulls away from his embrace. “How come none of you ever told me?” She doesn’t mean for there to be as much malice in her tone, but it slips out before she can stop herself.

Booker sighs. “We… weren’t sure how. They told me that they wait until the new one is comfortable with immortality before explaining our… other powers. Usually you’d wind up seeing them use it in battle at that point, anyway.”

Nile raises an eyebrow. “You don’t even sound like you believe that.”

“It’s because of me,” he relents after a few tense moments of silence.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“When they told me about his ability,” Booker runs a hand over his face. “I-I didn’t take it too well. I overstepped many times, demanded things I should never have.”

“How? What could you have possibly asked for that made them keep something like this a secret?” If Booker was telling the truth and Nicky could sense the moment someone died, how could that be of any use to Booker?

“I asked him to-”

“You asked him to cure your loneliness,” Joe says. There is no malice in his words – Joe says it in the same tone as if he were talking about the weather. He walks further into the kitchen and grabs two cups, setting them on the counter.

Booker looks away from Joe, turning his gaze to the floor, and nods.

Joe fills the two cups with water and brings them over to the table, setting them in front of an unoccupied seat before sitting down himself. “Nile.”

She looks at him and sees his gaze, strong and kind, pointed at her, unblinking.

“I am sorry we kept this from you. We are a team – a _family_ and we have kept you in the dark. None of us chose this life or these powers, but sometimes we must make decisions we believe are right,” his hands slide across the table to grab hers. Nile can’t help but notice the contrast between the warmth of his hands and the cold of his rings. “The truth of the matter is, while his ability takes many different forms, his ability allows him to communicate with the deceased.”

“You mean like a medium?” Nile asks.

Joe smiles at her, his gaze softening. “Yes, that is a good word to describe it. But it is also more than that. Nicky can sense the moment they pass, because, as he described it, it is like a light flickering on. However, the deceased are often… troubled when they pass - they do not ‘walk into the light’ as you would say – and so they linger among the living, invisible to all but Nicolo.”

“That… is a lot to take in. Thank you for explaining it,” she smiles. While she is grateful to finally be able to fill in some blanks she’s had for a while, she isn’t sure how much further she wants to delve without Nicky in the room to be a part of the conversation. She decides to lighten the mood with the only reference coming to her mind, “because if you had said he was a medium, I would have just pictured Nicky as one of those people on TV – like Long Island Medium.”

Joe barks out a laugh, throws his head back. “Do not let Nicky hear you say that!”

“Say what?” Andy asks, joining them in the kitchen, freshly showered in a sports bra and sweatpants. Nicky is close behind her, wearing a hoodie and pyjama bottoms. Andy sits down between Nile and Booker while Nicky lingers behind Joe’s chair.

“Nile compared Nicky to that lady from the Long Island Medium show,” Booker says as he takes a drink of coffee.

The reaction from her teammates is instantaneous.

Andy snorts and then smiles wider than Nile’s ever seen; Joe cackles as he wipes tears from his eyes; Booker is chuckling softly in his seat, trying to stifle it with a hand over his mouth; Nicky puts a hand to his chest in mock disgust before dropping it and smiling.

Nile feels a wave of warmth inside seeing her team all happy, the gloom of the earlier mission and the earlier conversation fading away, if only for a few minutes.

“I thought we agreed not to speak of her ever again,” Nicky reaches around Joe to lay his arms across his chest and resting his face on Joe’s head. “especially after… the incident.”

“What’s ‘the incident’?” Nile asks, using air quotes.

“It was 2012, we were staying in a hotel between missions and decided to turn on the TV to see when the game was on,” Joe explained, his hands coming up to grab Nicky’s. “an episode of _her_ show was on and when she described how she communicated with the dead, well…”

“Long story short – Joe and Booker ended up going to watch the game at a bar while Nicky and I had to figure out a way to install a new TV in the room,” Andy says, almost seriously. Her poker face soon broke as she uttered the last few words.

Nicky groans and buries his face in Joe’s curls. He mumbles something that no one else seems to understand – except Joe, who chuckles and kisses one of Nicky’s hands.

“My love, I think a bullet hole through the screen falls under the category of ‘that bad’.”

“Okay, now I know not to leave that channel on if you guys are in the room,” Nile jokes. “Good to know! Any other incidents I should know about so I know what other TV mediums I should avoid?”

When she sees Nicky glaring playfully at her from behind Joe’s curls, she gives him a wink.

Before the conversation can continue, a chorus of rumbling stomachs sound off.

“Joe, would you be able to help me in the kitchen for dinner? I’m sure between the two of us we’ll be able to figure something out,” Nicky ‘asks’ – Nile is pretty sure he formed it as a question for everyone else’s sake because he’s grabbed Joe’s hand, pulling him up and out of the chair before he’s even finished speaking.

They start speaking in Italian – _their_ Italian – and Nile turns back to Andy and Booker.

“So, please tell me the rest of the story about… ‘the incident’.”

By the time dinner is ready and they are eating, Nile can barely breathe as she doubles over laughing and wipes tears from her eyes. This moment reminds her of memories of dinners with her family, where laughter and love reign supreme above all else– she hopes she can make many new memories just like this one for her new family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter tags: Implied child murder, mild gore, past character death.
> 
> Another chapter, another reference to a show that was on while I was writing... at least this time I got to tie it into the story somewhat .  
> This was the chapter idea that started this whole thing, it was originally much shorter (it ended after Joe went into the house) but suddenly Booker appreared and it ran away from me. I had a quite a bit of trouble with Nile and Booker's conversation - but I'm quite happy with how it turned out in the end!


	4. Chapter 4

  1. Nile, Andy and Nicky walk through the streets of Naples, popping into a few shops along the way to gather supplies for their current house and new clothes to replace those with bullet holes. Booker and Joe were more than happy to let them go, almost pushing them out the door as the game started on the television.



They exit their last stop with a few bags in their hands and decide to make their way back to the others, turning down an alley. Nicky walks ahead of Nile and Andy, gladly taking most of the bags.

“I’m just saying, you will eventually need to own a piece of clothing that actually has colour in it,” Nile says. She had found a few shirts she thought would suit Andy while they were browsing but Andy had just chuckled, said she was cute and walked over to the black shirts and tank tops.

“I do own shirts with colour. This shirt is black, which is -” Andy protests before Nile cuts her off.

“Black is not a colour - black is a _shade_ , we’ve had this discussion before, Andy.”

“Oh, have we?” Andy winks at her. “I’m so old I can’t remember. Oh well, I’ll know for next time then!”

Nile rolls her eyes but smiles nonetheless. “Just like the last fourteen times I’ve told you?”

“One of these days I’ll remember, I swear.”

The two smile at each other as they continue walking. Andy explains all the changes she can see from the last time they had visited this place and how this city held nothing but good memories for them on the few occasions they had been.

Nile is so engrossed in the story, trying to imagine the city hundreds of years ago as Andy describes it, that she bumps into Nicky.

“What’s up, Nicky?” she asks. “Did you see something interesting?” Her tone is light and joking. She looks around to see what he could be seeing but doesn’t seem anything that she thinks would stand out to Nicky.

A beat of silence and Nile looks to Andy, who has now moved around Nicky, facing him. Any trace of joy from their earlier conversation is washed away in favour of concern.

“Nicky?” she hears Andy ask tentatively. “What’s wrong?”

Nile joins her in front of Nicky and gasps. He looks so… lost. His eyes are wide but glazed over, looking but not _seeing_. He almost looks frightened, but Nile couldn’t even begin to wonder at what could scare him this badly.

“Th-th-they,” he stutters, his mouth fumbling over the same word over and over again. He says it so quietly, as if it is a secret, as if he’s scared of alerting someone to their presence.

“No,” Andy curses, repeating the word a few times, running a hand through her hair. “Not again… not here, not _now_!”

“Andy, what’s going on?” Nile is torn between looking at Andy to get answers and scanning their surroundings for any possible threats. “What’s wrong with Nicky?”

“Shit! We can’t do this here, we need to get back to Joe and Booker,” Andy says. Nile nods - she trusts Andy’s judgement when it comes to the group, especially in situations as urgent as this one seems.

Nile reaches up to put her hand on Nicky’s shoulder, meaning to ask him what’s wrong once again. She can see Andy in the corner of her eye, hand stretched out towards her. The message in the look is clear – _don’t_. Nile just wants to help, to offer the comfort they give to each other when they are in distress, but she trusts Andy. Nile nods to her, and squeezes her fingers into a fist and drops it to her side.

Andy drops her hand and looks down at the bags still in Nicky’s hands. “Grab one of those bags and find something we can use as a blindfold.”

“Blindfold?”

“Please, Nile,” she pleads. The abrupt change in tone almost gives Nile whiplash – she was used to seeing Andy command a room with her words and hearing her voice go soft was another reminder that immortal they might be, they were still _human_.

Nile pries the bag from Nicky’s fingers, careful to not touch him. She rummages through and doesn’t find anything useful until her hand grazes against something soft. She pulls out a black scarf with bright blue constellations on it. Nile had bought it as a joke after Nicky called it a travesty, complaining that the constellations on it weren’t at all accurate.

She holds it up for Andy to see. “Will this work?”

When she nods, Nile hands it over.

Andy folds the scarf over itself, laying it across her hands. She takes a deep breath and forces a neutral expression on her face.

“Nicky, I need you to listen to me,” she says in a hushed tone. Neither Nicky’s body nor eyes move a hair. “ _Nicolo_ , _please_.” She brings a hand forward, close to Nicky’s own – as close as she could be without touching.

Nile has never heard Andy speak Italian – that was a language she associated solely with Nicky and Joe. Nile _knew_ that Andy spoke most, if not every, language there was to know, but she refrained from speaking certain ones around the others. The only time Nile realized that Italian was a language shared by most of them was when Andy smirked as Joe and Nicky bickered in a mix of Italian and Arabic.

Nicky’s eyes move, seemingly acknowledging Andy’s plea.

That’s as much as they were probably going to get, Nile guesses.

“Nicky, it’s alright, we’re right here with you – Nile and I are _right here_ ,” she repeats those words as she brings the scarf up to his head. “I’m going to block it out as best I can right now, but you have to let me _help_. Is it okay if I help you?”

Nile isn’t sure what kind of response to expect from Nicky, but movement from his hands draws her eyes downward. His fingers twitch at his side, short, aborted movements as if he’s grabbing at something invisible.

A few seconds roll by without a response and Andy repeats the question. His fingers still immediately and he uncurls his index finger. He reaches out and gently taps Andy’s knuckle once, twice.

“Okay, I’m going to cover your eyes, Nicky,” Andy says. Nile can only assume it’s a system they’ve worked out in their time together. The silent tapping of his fingers is the signal Andy was waiting for and Nile watches as she carefully lays the scarf across his eyes, stopping momentarily when he tenses but continuing as her earlier words seem to wash over him. Andy wraps the scarf around his head. “Nile?” she calls, not taking her eyes off the spot where Nicky’s own rested under the scarf. “Could you tie the back for me? If possible, cover his ears too.”

She does her best to tie a knot while also wary of touching the back of his head. His ears are slightly covered, but it wasn’t possible to cover them more without tying the scarf at an awkward angle and risk it falling down from his eyes.

When she confirms the blindfold is secure, she looks to Andy – Nile would be happy with an explanation or even the next step in her plan. “Andy?”

Andy meets her gaze. “Nile, we have to get back to the house. We can make our way back by foot but it would be less time and less attention if you portal us back – are you alright with that?”

Nile casts a quick glance at Nicky’s still-frozen form and nods, already extending a hand toward her friend and teammate. Andy takes it gently, moving her other hand to rest on Nicky’s shoulder, whispering her earlier affirmations as she does.

A quick scan of their surroundings tells Nile no one is around to see them teleport. She pictures the small house they currently call home in her mind, and after a second of weightlessness, they are standing in the middle of the living room.

Booker startles when they appear, uttering a string of French swears. Nile would’ve laughed had the situation not been serious.

“Where is Joe?” Andy asks, a sense of urgency creeping into her voice.

Booker, immediately sobering at Andy’s tone, seems to finally look at them and see the two of them sandwiching Nick, who was still blindfolded. “He-he’s in their bedroom - went to go read after the game was done,” Booker explains. “I’ll go get him.” He gets up from his seat and calls out Joe’s name as he all but runs down the hall to Nicky and Joe’s room.

Nile barely has time to take a breath before she hears the sounds of two people running towards them.

“ _Nicolo_ ,” Joe breathes, running around Nile to face Nicky. His hands hover around Nicky’s face, clearly wanting nothing more than to hold him. “ _Nicolo, my love, it’s alright_.”

“ _Yusuf,_ ” Nicky exhales so gently that Nile isn’t sure she would have heard it if she hadn’t been right next to him. There is silent communication that Nile figures stems from spending almost a millennium attuning yourself to another person and Joe places his hands delicately on Nicky’s face.

“ _Come with me, my heart, it is time to rest_ ,” Joe says, pressing a chaste kiss to Nicky’s lips. One hand stays on Nicky’s face while the other moves down his side to grab his hand. Nile can’t help thinking it looks a bit awkward but with an ease that can only come with practice, the two men make their way down the hall with small, careful steps.

As they enter their room, Nile allows herself to peel her eyes away and look to Andy and Booker. Andy is sitting down on one of the two chairs in front of the TV while Booker is at the table behind the chairs, laptop out.

“Andy,” Nile says. “what the _hell_ just happened?”

The older immortal racks her fingers through her hair. “It’s… difficult to explain.”

“I’m willing to listen to _any_ explanations you can give,” Nile sits down on the chair opposite Andy.

Andy sighs and rests her elbows on her knees, looking at Booker then to Nile. “Sometimes these-these… attacks happen. We don’t always know why, that seems to change every time, but when it does happen, it’s…”

“He basically gets overstimulated - suddenly there’s too many people moving around, too many noises,” Booker adds, his eyes never leaving the laptop.

Andy turns to look at him and nods. “It all becomes too much, too fast and he just… shuts down.”

“Is this happening because of his ability?” Nile’s eyes are wide and she has to try not to let her voice tremble.

Before Andy can answer, Booker gasps form his spot in front of the screen. “Holy shit – Boss, you need to come look at this _now_.”

Andy springs up and all but sprints to the laptop. Nile sees her eyes scan something on the screen before exclaiming, “Fuck!” Andy runs a hand across her face, groaning. “I’ll go tell Joe. Book, get ready for a supply run, just in case.”

Nile isn’t quite sure what to do with herself as Andy makes her way down the hall and Booker starts packing a few pistols and knives into a bag. She gets up and walks over to where Booker’s laptop lays open. She scans the article on the screen - there was an attack at the San Siro stadium in Milan: armed gunmen had stormed in, killing several civilians and then a series of bombs had detonated from underneath the seating.

Andy makes her way back into the living room, startling Nile. “Over 110 already. We’re going to need supplies after all – it’s only going to get worse for the next little while,” she sighs, exasperated. “This is _bad_ , Book. We haven’t been this close to one and this unprepared since…”

Nile can’t help but stare at Andy as the words leave her. There weren’t any details on the number of missing or dead yet - the attack had only happened a few hours ago, according to the article still pasted on the screen. That could be the only logical thing the 110 could represent – the way Booker had been searching for information on something, and his and Andy’s anger at the article he had found. How had Andy gotten that information? The only place she’d been since seeing the article was to Joe and Nicky’s- _Oh no_.

The thought makes Nile sick to her stomach. Part of her wants to ask, to _confirm_ what she’s thinking, but another part of her almost wanted to ignore the thought, to stay in the state of blissful ignorance she’d had thus far concerning Nicky’s ability.

“I know, Andy,” he stops packing his bag and rests a hand on her own. “but none of us could’ve known – we don’t know when or where they’ll happen, they just do,” Booker squeezes her hand, gently resting his chin on her knuckle. “I’ll go get supplies to last at least a few days, maybe even a week if it’s that bad.”

Andy nods and tells him to be careful.

He grabs his bag of weapons and another empty one and heads out to who knows where.

As soon as he’s out the door, Andy turns to her. “You should go unpack those bags, separate what belongs to who, then maybe have a shower if you want.”

Nile opens her mouth to protest or to ask Andy the dreaded question.

“ _Please, Nile,_ ” Andy begs in a tired voice. Her eyes are red-brimmed and suddenly all the protests Nile had prepared die on her lips. “I know we haven’t been exactly forthcoming with information, but please just… trust me. For now, at least.”

Nile crosses the small distance between them and hugs Andy. The other woman seems startled but soon brings her hands to cup Nile’s neck and her back.

She steps away and starts organizing the contents of their shopping trip, making a pile for each of them. Soon after, she grabs a change of clothes and hops into the shower, hoping she will be able to somewhat relax.

Just over an hour later, Booker comes back with both of his bags full. Andy and Nile are sitting in the chairs, watching coverage of the attack on the news, and neither Joe nor Nicky has come out of their room since they entered.

“Here you go, boss,” he places the bags on the table, pushing one of them towards Andy. “should be enough for an entire week.”

Andy mutters a quiet thanks as she grabs the bag and makes her way to Joe and Nicky’s room. She returns a few minutes later and helps Booker unpack the remaining bag.

Nile wants to help, wants to do _something_ , but she’s even more confused than she was earlier. She decides to get up and make something to eat – it would be something to keep her mind and hands occupied.

Andy and Booker discuss in hushed tones behind her and Nile groans – she thought that her finally having some sort of knowledge of Nicky’s powers would mean they would stop being so secretive about the details. “It’s his ability again, isn’t it?” She turns around, abandoning the sandwich she was making.

The other two immortals turn to her – Bookers mouth is agape while Andy’s is in a thin line.

“The article said there was an attack at a sports stadium and Andy said there were over 100 victims already. You told me he could _sense_ death. Is that why he just… shut down?”

Andy nods solemnly, keeping her gaze down at the bag they had just finished unpacking. “Those who die in disasters like these are usually scared as they die,” she puts her hands on the table in front of her and leans into it. “they are the ones who usually linger the longest.”

“As you know, Nicky has quite the connection with the dead, so when bodies start piling up, their spirits are drawn to him and they’re often confused about what is going on, but he is the only one that can see them, so they flock to him,” Booker continues. “like a flock of sheep.”

“But, I mean, people die all the time. Why is something like this different? He doesn’t usually get overwhelmed like that,” Nile asks.

Andy’s eyes, Nile can see now, are red-rimmed, and she takes a deep breath before continuing. “He’s tried explaining it, but we’re pretty sure it’s a proximity issue. The closer we are – the closer _he_ is to tragedies like this, the more intense his connection is with the victims.”

“So that means when those people died… just a few hours away,” Nile wants to stop the thought there, but she forces herself to continue. “he felt every single one of them die and now they are crowding around him, confused and scared.”

Andy nods her head, looking down and running a hand under her eyes.

“How has he done _this_ for so long then? I mean, you guys have been involved in pretty much every war possible. How the hell did Nicky stay sane with all that death?”

“He’s dealt with it in different ways over the centuries, but it’s always easier to manage when we know what we’re getting into,” Andy answers. “We were supposed to be safe here, at least for a little while-”

Booker looks as if he’s about to interject but Nile just raises her hand slightly – _I’ve got this_. “Andy, we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. So unless you secretly have the power to control the weather,” she walks forward to Andy and gently takes a hand in hers. She holds it still, allowing Andy the chance to separate if she wanted but Nile picks up her other hand when she doesn’t pull away. “no one is blaming you for this – especially not Nicky.”

“He has Joe, he has _us_ , Andy,” Booker says after a beat of silence. “we’re going to help him through this, just like we always do.”

Nile smiles at that. It’s moments like these that cements these people as her family in her heart – something about the five of them together seems like it shouldn’t work but it _does_. They are five puzzle pieces from different puzzles, the sides don’t fit together perfectly but with time and a steady flow of love, trust and understanding they form something beautiful: a family, jagged edges and all.

“So the question now is how _do_ we help him?” Nile lowers her hands and Andy’s but doesn’t move to separate them quite yet. “I assume you guys have some sort of plan – I was there when you sent Booker to ‘get supplies’ and when you dropped said supplies off to Joe.”

Andy chuckles at that – she doesn’t look as tired as she did earlier but Nile can still see the exhaustion weighing on her shoulders. “We’ll be there for him and for Joe. This is the worst one he’s had in a while, so both of them will be out of commission for a few days at least.”

“Last time this happened, physical touch seemed to be what helped the most,” Booker explains, wringing his hands as he speaks.

“So… what does that entail exactly? Do we hold his hand, wrap an arm around his shoulders – like Joe does?”

Andy and Booker share a look and smile. Andy retracts her hands from Nile’s. “Something like that.” She turns to Booker. “Book, could you go see Joe and Nicky and see how Nicky wants to do this?”

A quick nod and Booker is walking down the hall, quietly knocking on the bedroom door.

Andy’s hand rests on Nile’s shoulder. “The next few days will more than likely consist of getting very close and personal,” she squeezes lightly. “I’m talking hand holding, cuddling, sleeping close to each other…” she trails off.

“What else is there, Andy?”

“These situations are… rough for Nicky. He can deal with the spirits for a while but sometimes it gets to be too much and he needs a distraction. He… needs to not feel anything for a while, to make the ghosts go away.”

“And how do we help him with that?”

“By giving him whatever drugs we can get our hands on to… _numb_ him for a while until it all passes.” She stops for a moment, taking a deep breath before continuing. “Nile, if you aren’t comfortable with any part of this, I don’t blame you, none of us will – we can get you a hotel room for a few days while we ride this out.”

Nile stares at her. For a split second, the thought crosses her mind, but she squashes it down immediately. “I saw his eyes Andy – I saw how _scared_ he looked. We’re a family and that means we take care of each other.”

Andy smiles and brings her hand behind Nile’s neck, squeezing it gently before pulling her into a hug.

Booker clears his throat, announcing his return to the room and the two women separate. “Sorry to interrupt. Nicky was already asleep when I got there so I didn’t get an answer from him, but Joe suggested we make ourselves comfortable with them while we wait for Nicky to wake up.”

Nile isn’t quite sure how it all happens but within minutes of the words leaving Booker’s mouth, the three of them are in Joe and Nicky’s room, climbing onto the bed. The bed hadn’t seemed too big but the five of them fit together on it comfortably, albeit almost glued to one another, not that anyone was complaining.

Nicky is at the center, the blindfold still resting over his eyes and a steady rise and fall to his chest; Joe is behind him, nuzzling his nose against the back of his neck, one arm wrapped around his middle and the other gently caressing his hair; Nile is facing Nicky, her legs intertwined with his as her hands lay softly in front of her; Andy is sleeping on her stomach beside Nile, an arm strewn across Nile to grab Nicky’s hand; Booker is laying on his back, side pressed against Joe’s back.

Apart from the steady breathing of the five immortals, there was a comfortable silence across the room. Nile’s pretty sure none of them are sleeping other than Nicky, so it doesn’t surprise her when they all seem to notice the exact moment Nicky’s breath hitches. He lets out a whine and tries to curl into himself. She feels the muscles in Andy’s arm tense slightly and Andy’s hand squeezes onto Nicky’s tighter than before while Joe mumbles out a string of “ _it’s alright, we’ve got you, we’re all here_ ”. Nile offers what comfort she can as she runs her foot slowly up and down his ankle.

Nicky halts his movement and seems to relax somewhat, leaning back into Joe.

“Nicolo, do you want to keep the blindfold on?” Joe asks, leaning closer to his ear. He doesn’t receive a verbal answer but Nile can see Nicky’s free hand reach and tap Joe’s twice. “ _Okay, my love_ ,” Joe presses a kiss to his neck.

Nile lets out a gasp as Nicky’s free hand reaches out towards her and fumbles, trying to find something to hold onto. She meets him halfway and takes his hand, squeezing gently. “I’m here, Nicky. We’re all here.”

“Ooooh I think he likes you,” Andy singsongs from behind her. Nile chuckles but quickly starts laughing at her teammates reactions: Booker mutters out “Here we go” with a huff, Joe gasps in faux-hurt “Nile, are you trying to steal my husband?” and Nicky snorts and smiles, squeezing her hand.

They fall into another comfortable silence once the moment passes. Nile isn’t sure what time it was now, but the pull of sleep was strong and she let herself fall into it.

She is woken up by an iron grip around her hand – the hand Nicky was still holding. His knuckles are white as he clenches and unclenches her hand in a steady rhythm, almost matching her heartbeat. His other hand, the one previously held by Andy, is running up and down his arm, scratching furiously, leaving angry red marks that disappear as soon as he begins scratching anew.

Nile’s eyes are locked onto Nicky and she watches the way he swallows, the way his jaw clenches and unclenches and his head jerks slightly every few seconds. She watches him so intently she almost misses the quick exchange between Joe (“Book, could you grab a dose-”) and Booker (“Already on it”) before the latter gets up, the bed squeaking slightly.

He returns in the blink of an eye, holding a syringe in his hand.

Joe grabs the hand that Nicky is using to scratch his arm and whispers reassurances. Nicky’s hand jerks back, but Joe doesn’t relent and he holds Nicky’s hand firmly.

“ _Yusuf, they. won’t. stop,_ ” Nicky spits through gritted teeth, each word accompanied by an attempt to pry his hands from Joe’s.

“I know, habibi, I know,” Joe sighs. He leans down press more kisses to Nicky’s forehead as something resembling a sob escapes Nicky. “ _Nicolo, do you want something to help you sleep_?”

Nicky pushes his head into the pillow and he makes a noise that Nile can’t quite discern.

“Nicky, you know the system,” Andy says. Her voice is soft yet commands their attention nonetheless. “One tap for no, two taps for yes.”

They all watch as Nicky stops trying to fight Joe and lift his fingers, then tap once, and twice.

Joe turns his head, lets go of Nicky’s hand to grab the syringe that Booker was now holding out.

“Just a pinch, my love, and then you can rest,” Joe says as he grabs Nicky’s arm with the hand previously around his middle.

He turns the arm gently and presses a gentle kiss to the crook of Nicky’s arm. His hands steady, he tightens his grip on Nicky’s arm as he pierces the skin, pushes down on the plunger and holds the syringe steady for a few moments. Nile watches as the syringe trembles slightly, Nicky’s body trying to eject it so it could knit the skin back together.

Once all of the clear liquid is injected, Joe removes the syringe and lays another kiss to the already healed skin.

Nile watches as the tension leaves Nicky’s body – his shoulders sag, his jaw unclenches, his grip on Nile’s loosens but he doesn’t let go, and he pushes himself further back, against Joe. Joe’s hand rests on Nicky’s hip for a moment before he wraps it around his waist once again.

“Sleep now, we’ll be here when you wake up,” Booker smiles. Nile isn’t sure if he’s talking to Nicky specifically or the group as a whole, but Nile feels the pull of sleep once again at his words.

Once the morning sun shines windows into the room, Booker and Andy suggest that they get some food ready and Nile’s stomach growls in agreement. They eat, making sure to leave some for Joe and Nicky before they try to distract themselves in this small pocket of calm. Over the next two days they fall into an easy routine - sometimes they all end up back in a cuddle pile, sometimes it’s just Nile, just Andy. Joe is always there with him, leaving only for a few minutes to use the washroom or eat. It’s a routine Nile quickly grows accustomed to, and she can only assume it’s one they’ve practiced for centuries.

The sun was going down and they had all settled back into Joe and Nicky’s room: Nicky had just fallen asleep after another dosage while Nile practiced her German with Andy, Joe sketched the two of them, and Booker drank a glass of coffee that was most definitely more alcohol than coffee.

That’s when the bubble of relative peace they’d made for themselves pops in the most violent way possible: with broken glass, a bright flash and gunfire.

Nile moves to grab one of the guns hidden under the matt-

A momentary pain erupts in her side as 50, 000 volts course through her body. Darkness consumes her before her body hits the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ..... enjoy! (and I'm sorry haha)
> 
> Chapter tags: Drug use, implied character death, self harm.
> 
> This chapter ran away from me - almost 5k words! I'm quite pleased with this chapter - it's an aspect of Klaus' powers that came up in the first season (and was the main focus of his character tbh) about the ghosts that pile up and how he copes with them. The Old Guard may be immortal but they are still human and I think even after 900 years, Nicky would still need a little breather every now and again, especially when tragedies happen in the world... 
> 
> Anyway, hope you all enjoy, one more chapter to go! See you guys next time!


	5. Chapter 5

Nile feels the jolts run under her skin, into her bones, into her blood. She feels the electricity envelop her body and paralyze her. She feels the phantom pain of her limbs constricting involuntarily. She feels the –

She gasps, tries to take in as much air as she can. She coughs and coughs and coughs in her quest to replace the air that was stolen from her lungs.

It isn’t until her lungs fully expand and her breaths even out that Nile realizes she can’t see. Her eyes are open but she can’t see. She blinks her eyes, trying to wash away the darkness to no avail. She feels… something against her cheeks, against her ears and she almost laughs when she identifies it as a blindfold.

“Nile, listen to me,” Andy’s voice cuts through her thoughts, brings her to attention in an instant. “This is a small room, approximately 10 by 10 feet. It’s white walls with white tiles, white ceilings with a cold white floor – an old lab now converted into a jail cell. There is a wall a foot behind you – picture the space just behind you.”

Nile had never more appreciated Andy’s strategic talent. She would never admit it out loud, but Nile wasn’t sure she would’ve had come to the same conclusion Andy had.

She pictures the room in her mind as best she could – she imagines the details Andy had given her, she pictures her friends in the room with her. If she could at least picture Andy in the room with her, she hopes it would give her a better chance of staying here and not teleporting to a similar room halfway around the world. She can feel the cold floor on her knees and she knows she’s kneeling so she extends her leg back as best she could, feeling around to ensure there were no surprises waiting for her upon landing.

Nile’s hands are chained in front of her, connected to a metal ring protruding from the floor. She has more than enough room to push her hands into fists and concentrate her power. The familiar hum and warmth englobes her fists and, at the sound of a very relieved exhale, she stands just behind where she was just kneeling, chains clinking on the ground.

She makes quick work of her blindfold and takes in the state of her team. Andy is next to her with lengths of chains running the long of her chest and arms as well as her legs, all of which are connected to hoops bolted to the ground next to her. Booker is sat to Andy’s left, a matching blindfold to Nile’s own sat snugly over his eyes and a length of metal spreading his arms apart and away from each other. Joe sits with his back to the wall, arms and feet cuffed and connected, with a sheet of metal welded shut around his head, covering his mouth. Nicky is huddled in the corner of the cell opposite Nile, his arms and legs bound similarly to Joe’s and there is a needle in his arm, pumping whatever drugs are in the IV into his system.

Seeing as Andy is the only one of her teammates that is awake and aware, Nile takes a careful step towards her.

“No guards, patrols come by every fifteen minutes and the last one came by five minutes ago,” Andy states, giving Nile all the answers she was trying to figure out herself. Armed with that knowledge, she practically runs to Andy and examines the chains wrapped around her body. Nile reaches out to press a hand to Andy’s shoulder but Andy interrupts her, “Save your strength – we don’t know what we’re looking at once we get out of this cell.”

“Andy.” Different thoughts run through Nile’s mind and she isn’t sure exactly which one she hopes Andy will pick up the most. _This is the fastest way out of those chains / My energy is never wasted on you / How do you suggest we get you out?_

“In my boot,” Andy wiggles her left foot as much as she can within the chains. “There’s a small dagger – grab it and pick one of the locks. I can get the rest.”

Nile takes off Andy’s shoe and sees the small knife strapped to the inside. She grabs it and makes quick work of the lock holding the chains around her arms.

The shackles loosen around Andy’s arms and she slips one arm out to grab the length of chain connecting her to the floor. Her fingers close around the cold metal and she _pulls_ , not even breaking a sweat as the metal groans under the pressure. The chain collapses under the pressure and the metal screeches as the chain is ripped apart and away from the loop. Andy does the same on the other side, freeing up both arms. She grabs the chains surrounding her legs and tears them away from her, ripping through the metal like it was paper.

There is a desperation in Andy’s eyes, hidden well beneath her professional façade that Nile sees for no more than a millisecond. No one enjoyed being chained up and imprisoned, but Nile’s heard the stories- she’s heard _the_ story- that has besmirched chains in any and all capacity for Andy.

Andy stands and takes a deep breath. “I’ll get Joe and Booker, you go unhook that IV they stuck in Nicky and start working on his locks,” she orders.

Nile doesn’t think twice before she closes the short distance between her and Nicky. As she kneels in front of him to take a closer look at his bindings, she sees the needle stuck into his arm. There is tape holding the needle in place in the crook of his arm and the tube is also tapped to his arm a few inches below the injection point.

Nile rips off the tape and winces – even though any damage would be almost immediately undone, she still remembers the sharp sting of pulling off tape and whatever hair that came with it. She holds the skin around the needle with one hand and delicately pulls out said needle with the other. The moment the needle leaves his body, the skin knits itself back together and Nile runs her finger over the now untarnished skin. She rips the last bit of tape off his arm and throws the line fall to the ground as she starts working on his handcuffs.

She hears Booker stir – or rather, she hears the sound of Andy gently tapping his face to wake him up. Nile hears the screech of metal and Booker’s groggy, “Boss?” as Andy gives him a quick rundown of their situation.

Nile hears chains rattle next to her and she turns to watch Joe. He gasps awake, jerking his head around to find something. That something was, understandably, Nicky and Joe’s eyes are wide as he looks at his love. Joe is saying something, or rather _trying_ to say something, but there is no way to make out his words from behind the sheet of metal. Nile isn’t even sure if he sees her next to Nicky, but she nods at him all the same, trying to soothe what worries she could.

She turns her attention back to Nicky and manages to unlock the shackles around his wrists after she takes a breath and steadies her hands. She does the same before tackling the chains around his ankles.

There is a sound of metal screaming as it tears apart and Nile can only assume it was the sound of Joe’s make-shift gag being destroyed as his voice filled the air. His restraints must follow soon after because Nile feels his presence next to her as she finishes unlocking Nicky’s ankles.

Joe is whispering softly in their Italian, repeating his name a few times. Nile wants to tear her eyes away from such an intimate moment between the two of them but she wants to make sure Nicky is alright – a quick glance to Andy and Booker tells her they are having similar thoughts, their eyes trained on the lovers.

Nicky’s eyes screw even further shut before relaxing and slowly opening. He blinks, his eyes unfocused. With a swipe of Joe’s thumb on his cheek, it’s like a switch was flipped as his eyes seem to finally settle on Joe’s figure in front of him, a glimpse of a smile on the corner of his lips.

“There you are,” Joe breathes, letting out a small chuckle and squeezing Nicky’s face gently in his hands.

“There I am.” Nicky’s voice is hoarse and even the three words he utters seem to exhaust him, his body slumping against Joe. Three days of a cycle of drugs and sleep, combined with whatever drugs their captors had given him were starting to show their toll on him. He would recover soon, but Nile understood his momentary exhaustion.

“We have three minutes until the next patrol comes by – we have to go _now_ ,” Andy says. “We’ll need weapons. Book, you take the dagger – it isn’t much but it’s something. Nile, when we get out of here and see guards, you do your thing and get us some weapons. Joe, grab Nicky and watch him until he gets the crap out of his system.” Nile is about to ask what Andy will carry as a weapon when the latter reaches down to grab the chains that had bound her. She picked it up in her hands and swung it around her expertly, testing its range.

Joe pulls Nicky away from his shoulder and helps him up, throwing an arm around his body to steady him.

Andy steps forward, resting her chains around her neck for a moment as she grips the iron bars in front of her. She pulls them apart from each other with a grunt, creating a hole wide enough for the team to slip through.

They make their way forward into the corridor but as they creep toward the upcoming corner, Andy motions for them to stick to the wall. The stomping of two sets of heavy boots echoes in the hallway and Nile knows what she has to do. She crouches down and settles herself in front of Andy to turn her head and grab a quick glance at the corridor the guards were in.

She keeps the picture in her mind as her hands glow blue and she appears behind them. One elbow to the neck of the first guard dazes him momentarily, grasping at his throat. The second guard raises his gun to shoot, but in the split second it takes for him to fire, Nile has snapped herself behind the first guard, using him as a shield. She feels his body jerk at the impact of the bullets before pushing him towards the other, sending both tumbling to the ground. The momentary confusion allows Nile to grab the gun of the recently deceased and she puts a bullet right between the eyes of the second guard.

“Clear,” she calls out. The others advance toward her. She reaches down to grab the other discarded gun and she hands it to Joe as he passes by her. She does a quick search of the bodies and finds some small knives that she hands to Booker, along a handgun that she places in Nicky’s free hand.

He slowly pulls his hand from around Joe’s shoulders and settles it on the gun. Nile sees the slight twitch of his head, of his fingers, of his eyes. She wants to ask him if the ghosts of the previous days were still lingering, but she knows what the answer will be. He breathes in deep and nods to Andy.

Andy answers with a nod of her own, advancing towards the next set of doors at the end of the hallway. They settle on either side of the double doors as they scan what they can see of the room. Even with a momentary glance it’s obvious that this room is a lab: there are multiple gurneys lined up, each with restraints and monitors attached, vials and medical tools are scattered along countertops and small fridges are seated next to the gurneys.

Andy moves in, pushing the door open, Booker follows, then Nile and Joe with Nicky bringing up the rear. It’s the order they’ve used countless times before – the order that works. A scan of the room tells them there are no immediate threats and Andy suggests they keep moving.

Before any of them can take a step, there is an almost inaudible hissing coming from the vents in the ceiling. Nile looks up and can see the area just in front of the vent is distorted, gas exiting the vents. She looks back to her teammates and they must come to the same conclusion she does because they scramble to run to the doors they had just entered from.

Nile isn’t sure what the gas is, but its effects take effect almost immediately. Her limbs start to go numb, and the pins and needles in her feet cause her to crumble to the ground. She turns her head as best she can to see the others have suffered a similar fate.

She can’t move or react as she watches multiple pairs of combat boots walk in the room – some of them move to go behind her and her friends while some stay in front, accompanied by someone wearing loafers. She feels her body being hoisted up, her hands zip tied behind her, and she hears the click of a gun, no doubt aimed at her head.

The men that just entered are all stereotypical military goons, all of whom seem to be waiting on the command of the man in the center, the one wearing the atrocious loafers, and each of them have a gas mask fixed to their faces.

There is a click followed by fans whirring to life. A few moments pass before the soldiers are given the signal to take off their masks before quickly re-aiming their guns at the immortals.

Feeling returns to her body like a tidal wave and she itches to move, but the looming threat of getting shot in head keeps her rooted to the floor. It would be difficult to help her team if she had to wait for her skull to mend.

“Truly… exquisite creatures,” Loafers says. “Not only have you all unlocked the secret to immortality, you’ve also been blessed with superhuman abilities.” He moves to take a step forward, but one of the men beside him holds out an arm.

“I would advise against getting too close, Mr. Harper, sir,” the soldier says, eyes never leaving the group of immortals.

Loafers, or Harper as the soldier had called him, merely pushes the arm away from him. “And I would advise _you_ to only speak when spoken to.” He takes a step, getting into Andy’s space and lowers his head down to look at her. “You have been _very_ difficult to track down.”

“Maybe that’s because we didn’t want to be found,” Andy spits, glaring at the man in front of her.

“Perhaps, but your immortality and your powers are too important to be kept hidden. It’d be selfish not to share that with the world,” he leans back, standing upright, and he takes a few steps, analyzing each of the immortals as he passes. “I’ve been watching you all, I’ve seen what you can do. I must say, it is one thing to hear about your abilities and it is another to _see them in action_. I almost wanted to send more guards your way to see each of you using them side by side!”

Andy curses at him. “You were watching us this entire time?”

“Of course I was! I was curious to see how you would use your powers in these kinds of situations and I must say, I am impressed,” he laughs. “Don’t get me wrong, there were a few mishaps, but I saw what each of you could do – you two,” he gestures to Nile and Andy, “as you escaped, and you two,” he now points between Joe and Booker, “gave us _quite_ the show when you woke up in transit, and this one,” his gaze finally lands on Nicky, “well, let’s just say we figured out very quickly why you kept him sedated these past few days.” The man shivers after the words leave his mouth, as if he is picturing an unpleasant memory.

Nile tries to maintain her glare at the man as he speaks but as the last words leave his mouth, she can’t help but gasp. She tries to find the words to ask the question, even if she dreads the answer. The same thoughts must be racing through her teammates minds because Booker provides the words she cannot.

“How the hell do you know about that?”

Harper looks at him and grins. “I heard rumours about you all – people who seemed to go into impossible situations and come out unscathed, people who survived things that would kill others ten times over,” he pauses to let his eyes roam over each of them. “Let’s just say, with my resources, it didn’t take long before we started seeing familiar faces at different tragedies across the globe, and with some more digging, we found those same faces dating back _centuries_.”

Booker’s eyes widened momentarily before he schooled his features back into a menacing glare. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Harper looks to the man behind Booker and waves his hand. A gun connects with the back of Booker’s head and he falls forward, cursing in French.

“I’m getting to that.” Harper spits out. “You are immortal and yet you have the patience of a child,” he scoffs. He rests his hands behind his back and puffs out his chest. “From there it was simple to track you all - where tragedy goes, you all follow,” he paces in front of the five of them, looking into each of their eyes as he continues speaking, “Alas, I must give credit where credit is due: you are all _very_ difficult to pin down. You never stay in one place for long, so I knew I had to work fast.”

Nile replays the last few days in her head, trying to think of something one of them had said or done that would’ve tipped these people off to her location. She comes up empty – they had been laying low, mixing it up between staying in the shadows and hiding in plain sight among the tourists. They had done what they always did up until – _Oh_.

Up until Nicky had shut down.

Because Nicky shuts down when there are waves of unexpected deaths. Because Nicky shuts down when those deaths happen close to him. Because Nicky shuts down and needs drugs to calm him down to block out the onslaught of death. Because Nicky shuts down for days on end, and his family stays with him through it all.

“You monster!” Nile can’t stop herself from screaming at their captor. The realization of what this man has done coils in Nile’s gut and threatens to strangle her. She knows it’s a nigh impossible scenario for her to be able to kill him in this instant, but she lunges forward anyway. Gloved hands immediately restrain her and she gets the butt of a pistol to the back of the head, just as Booker had.

“I can assure I am anything but. I am a man who could see the bigger picture, and did what I had to for the greater good,” he stares down at Nile, chin jutting out almost in a taunt to try it again.

Nile holds his gaze and doesn’t relent. She almost lets a smile creep onto her lips when he looks away. Almost.

“Like we’ve never heard that one before,” Joe spits.

Harper turns his head to look at him but doesn’t motion to his guards to punish him. He simply turns his head even further and plasters a shark-like grin on his face as he eyes Nicky. A few steps and he crouches down in front of Nicky. Nicky’s face flickers between being a blank stare and a rage that flashes in the squint of his eyes, the scrunch of his nose and the baring of his teeth.

Harper leans in, “Are they still here?” he asks in a whisper. Nicky doesn’t give a single indication he’s even heard him. Harper stands back up and smirks. “Thought so.”

“You know, you never did answer my question,” Booker states. Nile looks to him and she can’t tell if he genuinely hasn’t put the pieces together yet or if he just wants to take the man’s attention away from Nicky. Maybe it was a mix of both.

Harper has the audacity to _laugh_. “Well here I thought everyone had caught on, but I guess with the patience of a child comes the critical thinking of a child, so I’ll spell it out for you: I know about you keeping him sedated because I’m the reason for it - I orchestrated the attack that crippled your little team.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter tags: Non-consensual drug use.
> 
> I'm sorry for the wait for this part! I had some trouble with a few sections and I needed to do some heavy editing to help it all flow better together. You may have noticed I upped the chapter count - this last part is already at 5.5k words and I'm not quite done writing it yet, so I decided to split it into two parts! I wanted to post this because I left the last one on a cliffhanger and I wanted to resolve it (by adding another sort of cliffhanger...) 
> 
> Thank you all for the comments and kudos so far! It is very much appreciated :) That being said, happy reading!


	6. Chapter 6

Hearing him say it made it all the more nauseating. He was a man who knew the only way to capture the group was to force them to settle down for a few days, who realized the easiest way to accomplish that task was to murder innocents in cold blood and who had _laughed_ when he explained his plan. Nile knew there were bad, terrible, despicable monsters that walked around, disguising themselves as people, but even those words seemed too light a comparison to the monster stood in front of her.

Andy curses, eyes moving to the floor then back to Harper. “You killed over one hundred people, threw away their lives, and used them like pawns to get what you wanted.”

“What is a hundred or so lives lost in the grand scheme of things? Once we unlock the secrets of your immortality, we can save _billions_ and when we understand your powers, we could change warfare as we know it!”

Nicky lets out a low growl at that. “Their lives were not yours to trade.” It is the first thing Nile has heard him say since they escaped the cell, and it shakes her to her core. There is burning hatred laced onto every word, but his tone is cold and unwavering.

Harper scoffs at his words and he leans down once again, crouching between Nicky and Joe. “Are they talking to you right now? It’s been less than 72 hours since they all died, can’t imagine any of them have found peace.”

Joe starts speaking even before Harper finishes. “I dreamt that you shut up.” It’s an instantaneous reaction: the words leave Joe’s mouth and Harpers eyes glaze over for a second before returning to normal, his mouth snaps close and he stares at Joe incredulously.

Harper doesn’t need words to convey his anger at being ridiculed. It happens in an instant: he drags a finger across his own throat and points to Joe, marking him for death, and suddenly there is a gun firing that leaves Nile’s ears ringing, and then Joe crumples forward, a bullet straight to the heart.

Nicky starts thrashing against his restraints the moment Harper motions to his guards. When Joe’s body crashes to the ground, he curses, snaps his teeth, wrings his wrists in their bindings, trying everything to punish the men who harmed Joe. The guards behind them train their guns on Nicky and Nile closes her eyes and braces herself for the sound of another shot ringing out, another body hitting the floor.

Neither sound comes. She opens her eyes to see Harper looking at the scene before him – looking at Nicky. His head is titled slightly, seemingly in innocent curiosity, but the gleeful look in his eyes is anything but innocent. It’s the look that Nile’s seen in people who see death and destruction as a means to an end, a necessary evil. It’s the look of people who see the immortality her family possesses, mixed with their proficiency in battle, and see soldiers, _weapons_ , which would turn the tide in any conflict.

“I think this courtesy has gone on long enough,” Harper huffs. He pulls his gas mask back over his face, his soldiers following suit, and Nile knows what’s coming next.

There is the familiar hiss and Nile feels her body shutting down section by section, pins and needles overtaking any other sensation she had. Her body falls forward once again and she sees Andy, Booker and Nicky in the same position – Joe was still on the ground but Nile couldn’t be sure if it was because he hadn’t revived yet or if he had been affected by the gas.

Harper is talking to his soldiers, instructing them on what to do next. “Grab those two and take them down to level nine – their abilities will be easier to counteract while you investigate their immortality,” Nile can’t see who he’s talking about and that makes the situation worse – there were no good combinations, no two _right_ people to be hauled off to be tortured. “then keep these three here with Williams – she will find a way to ensure their… cooperation.”

There is the sound of the zip ties being cut behind her, and someone moves her arms to the front, replacing the zip ties with heavy metal shackles. She is hauled up and she can see the divide in the room – Andy and Booker are on one side with Joe, Nicky and Nile on the other. She meets Andy’s eyes and tries to convey something to her, an apology, a reassurance, a plan, she isn’t sure, but Nile isn’t expecting Andy’s eyes to look so… tired. It is in that moment that Nile remembers just how old Andy is and nausea threatens to creep up at the thought of how many times Andy has suffered torture like this before.

As quickly as the last time, the fans whir to life and Nile almost spasms as she gets control of her body back. Joe takes a shuddering breath and Nile is relieved he is back with them again, even if they will soon be separated from the others. Nile watches the others and knows the only thing stopping them from killing everyone in the room is the myriad of guns still pointed at them and the promise of death if they attempt anything.

“Bring this one in first – make sure to cover his mouth,” Nile doesn’t need to look to know they are motioning to Joe – even if they hadn’t made the comment about gagging him, Nicky’s immediate protests would have been another indication.

Nile hears a gunshot and sees Nicky double over, a hand immediately going to his abdomen. She hears him call out to Joe as Joe is all but dragged through a set of doors and down the hallway. Andy and Booker are soon escorted out of the room, going the opposite direction Joe had been taken.

Their team had dwindled down to just two in a matter of moments, and Nile looks in front of her to meet Nicky’s eyes. His abdomen already fully healed, he stands upright and turns his head as far as he can to glance at Nile. He doesn’t say anything, but he nods and Nile can read the message clear as day: _We can take them_ , _just wait for the right moment._

A soldier from behind her pushes her forward with his gun and she stumbles into Nicky, quickly recovering and turning to stare daggers at the man. They trudge forward, out the doors Joe had gone through and down a hallway – Nile almost feels like a prisoner on death row, but even that situation would feel better than the cycle of life and death she has no doubt awaits them.

As they turn the corner, Nile spots a room with an open door. She is only able to glance inside for a moment as they pass, but she can see the glow of monitors and she can see movement within the screens. She studied the monitors as best she could, finding the relevant details: she saw Joe’s curls appear in a monitor on the top right as well as Andy and Booker being strapped to tables in the middle left.

Nicky stops abruptly in front of her but this time her instincts kick in and she’s able to stop herself from crashing into him _again_. The guards order him to keep moving, but Nicky looks at them and clears his throat. “Have any of you ever watched Cutthroat Kitchen?”

It takes all of Nile’s willpower not to laugh at Nicky’s idea of a subtle message. That night had felt so long ago, but Nile appreciated Nicky’s attention to detail – especially since he hadn’t known what Nile was referencing the first time she had mention ‘discount Alton Brown’.

There are six guards surrounding them as they move through the halls. It’s an almost laughable amount - if Harper had been doing his research as dutifully as he claimed, he would know it necessary to send a small village to even try to get them outnumbered. The moment the words leave Nicky’s mouth, he swings into action like a pit viper. He twists his body to the side, lifting his chained arms up and running the chain around the poor guard’s throat. Nile follows suit shortly after and she is silently pleased with herself at how quickly they had fallen in sync with each other. Nicky turns his attention one way, covering Nile’s back as she covers his.

The four remaining guards fire at them but only end up hitting their two companions who are currently being used as shields. The bodies absorb a few bullets before Nicky increases the pressure on his guards’ neck and releases him, the guard crumpling like a ragdoll. Nile avoids a few more bullets before grabbing the guard’s gun and dropping his body, letting it fall to the ground like a ragdoll. She clenches her fist and hears the familiar hum, feels the familiar warmth and she’s behind the two remaining guards. One guard goes down with a bullet to the back of the head but the other turns and moves, only getting a bullet to the shoulder. His reflexes are quick enough that he’s able to get a shot to Nile’s abdomen, but she quickly returns the favour and his corpse falls backwards.

She looks to Nicky to find he’s dispatched of his guards except for one, who is currently being pinned down with a boot to the chest. Nicky is demanding to know where Joe is being held, but the guard doesn’t say anything other than the occasional wince of pain. Nile watches as Nicky points his gun at the guard’s foot and fires without so much as blinking. The guard cries out.

“Tell me,” Nicky brings the gun closer to the guard’s face, “ _now_.”

The guard looks at him, anger clear on his features, but Nile is glad that the man doesn’t seem to be a masochist when his anger dissolves and he garbles out a “Jericho lab, up ahead.”

Nicky doesn’t say anything but his head tilts the slightest bit and he puts a bullet between the man’s eyes. She doesn’t feel a shred of remorse for the man – each of them had aided in signing the death warrants for her family, ensuring their torture and exploitation.

Nile exchanges her gun and calls to Nicky. He is looking up ahead, planning his route to Joe. “I’ll go find Andy and Booker while you go get Joe.” She gets a nod in response and he exchanges his own gun before starting to all but run down the hallway. She hears a familiar hum and sees a faint blue aura start to manifest around Nicky’s hands – very similar to her own powers.

She calls to him, telling him to be careful before he rounds the corner. Nile almost laughs to herself – she knows Nicky is more than competent to take down every single soldier in this building, each of them are, but she says it moreso for the soldiers that are stupid enough to stand in between Nicky and his beloved. Hell hath no fury like a Nicky scorned.

Nile sets out to find Booker and Andy, doubling back towards the lab, towards the room with the security cameras.

It doesn’t take long to figure out where Andy and Booker are being kept: Nile sees guards exiting a room on one of the cameras, and then the screen switches to a lab. A lab where Andy and Booker are both strapped to tables. The camera pans across the room and Nile can see that they are not alone in the room. A scientist and two armed guards were also in the room – the scientist was standing over Andy and writing something down on a chart while the two guards stand diligently – one stands behind Andy and Booker while the other stood in front of the doors.

She stares at the image of the lab and formulates a plan of attack. She would need to portal into the room in a spot that wouldn’t leave her immediately vulnerable to enemy fire, but there wasn’t much space in the room itself.

If she portaled in between the guards, she would need to kill at least one of them before they realized what was happening or else she risked getting gunned down; if she portaled behind one of the guards, she would need to act fast to incapacitate them and still stay clear of the bullets from the opposite soldier. Then there was the question of the scientist in the room. Nile couldn’t be sure of the woman’s combat skills nor the various possible tools that could be used as weapons or injections.

As she mulls the information over in her head, Nile sees the camera pan back to Booker and Andy strapped down and a small movement catches her attention. Nile watches Bookers arm twist in its restraints and his wrist twitches forward. At first she’s worried that they’ve injected him with something but that washes away quickly when she sees a momentary flash of something catching in the light. Booker somehow still had the dagger Andy had given him earlier, and by the throwing motions he was making with his wrist, he was ready to throw at any moment.

Booker’s limited range of motion meant that he would only be able to throw the dagger at the guard in front of them, the one standing by the door, so that left Nile the option of teleporting in between or behind the second guard. She doesn’t have much more time to waste.

Nile goes through the motions when she needs to portal somewhere and instead of the hallway, she now stands in the lab and the scene erupts into chaos.

Before her feet even touch the ground, Nile has her gun aimed and ready at the second guard stood behind her friends. A gunshot to the head makes quick work of him and he falls to the ground with a thud. Nile hears the impact of the dagger landing in the intended target of the other guard’s skull and with a pained cry, he too falls to the ground.

Nile makes quick work of the straps keeping her friends tied down, or at least she makes quick work of Bookers – the moment that Nile undoes one of the straps holding Andy’s arms down, Andy rips off her other bindings herself.

Nile turns just as Booker picks up a scalpel from one of the tables and launch it at the scientist who was attempting to escape through the doors. The woman falls to the ground, hand outstretched on the door. Nile almost forgot she was there entirely – the woman was small and blended into the laboratory scene better than the armed guards.

Andy and Booker each picked up a discarded gun along with any knives or instruments that could be used as weapons.

“We need to go get to Nicky and Joe – Joe was taken somewhere ahead of Nicky and I and we split up to find everyone,” Nile informs them. “I can get us back to that hallway, but I’ll need to see the cameras to find their exact location.”

Andy nods as she checks her gun. “Be ready to start shooting once we land in that hallway – we have no idea if that bastard knows you’ve escaped his guards again, we need to prepare for a possible ambush.”

“You guys ready?” Nile asks, already putting a hand on each of their shoulders. They both nod as the last word leaves her mouth.

A hum, a flash of light and they are standing in the long hallway where Nile and Nicky had separated.

Andy and Booker both have their guns drawn and ready, but there aren’t any guards waiting for them. Nile isn’t sure if she feels relieve or nauseous at the emptiness of the hallway – either the guards weren’t aware of their breakout yet, or they were all with Nicky and possibly with Joe as well.

Nile pushes the uncertainty from her thoughts as she turns to look at the wall of cameras mapping out the building. She can feel Booker and Andy standing behind her, each of them covering her sides while sparing glances at the cameras every so often.

As her eyes scan across the various cameras, the rooms start to blend together – each of them with matching white walls, white floors and bright white lights. Her eyes are almost hurting from staring at the endless brightness of the rooms when a blur of movement catches her attention.

It’s Nicky. There is blood spatter all over his clothes, blood smeared along his arms and a still healing cut on his cheek. The only thing breaking up the sea of red is the faint blue still around his fists. He no longer has his gun and Nile wonders if that is why he is covered in blood – if he no longer had a gun, he would need to fight in hand to hand combat. Any injuries he may have gotten during his mission to get Joe would have healed and Nile can only hope the blood on his arms is not his as it drips onto the floor.

He steps down the hallway, eyes forward and fists clenched – a man on a mission who has no intention of stopping for anything or anyone. There was no sound coming from the cameras, but Nile watches Nicky quicken the pace instantly, through the doors, at what she can only assume is Joe’s voice from the other side of the door.

She tells Andy and Booker that she’s located Nicky in one of the cameras and she knows where he is – she would hesitate to teleport with so little details of the specific room Nicky was in, but time was not on their side and she would need to trust her abilities. Time becomes even more important the moment she reaches for them and she looks at the camera where Nicky had just been only to find six soldiers advancing through the doors. “We have to go _now_ , Nicky’s got company.”

Nile takes one last look at the video feed and closes her eyes and pictures the hallway in her mind. She sees the long white tiled walls and the spotless white floor and a small part of her is glad that Nicky had dragged blood into the hallway – if only to make her job of picturing _that_ hallway infinitely easier.

Her feet hit the ground, Andy and Booker by her side. Thankfully there are no guards in the hall waiting for them. Nile can feel exhaustion creeping into her bones - multiple jumps across who knows how many floors of a building in such a short time was starting to take its toll.

Nile breathes in deeply and looks to Andy. “Andy, I’m starting to run on empty – I’ve got maybe three or four jumps left before it gets unpredictable.”

“You know the drill Nile, do what you need to do, and don’t worry about a getaway – we have other ways of getting back, but first we need to get _out_ ,” Andy reminds her. Nile nods in response and steels herself, her gun clutched in her hand and ready.

Andy takes one step toward the door with Booker and Nile following suit when gunfire erupts from behind the doors. They freeze and Nile breathes out Nicky’s name as the gunfire continues. Nile is about to rush in when a chorus of screams starts as the gunfire dies down to an occasional shot.

Andy and Booker share a look before Andy is resting a hand on Nile’s shoulder. “Nile, you need to prepare yourself for what you are going to see in there.”

“Andy what- how can- I- I was in the marines. I know I’m still a baby compared to you all but I’ve seen my fair share of death and violence –”

“Nothing like this,” Booker tells her. Nile sees him shudder slightly as he speaks and she can only assume it’s a lesson he learned himself. “Trust me Nile, please brace yourself for the scene you are about to step into.”

Nile knows they were referring to Nicky, _warning_ her about Nicky, and she tries to calm herself, prepare her for a scene of death and utter carnage.

She follows Andy and Booker through the doors and gasps, willing herself not to gag at the sight before her. It was so much worse than she had thought.

Nile scans the room and sees a scene straight out of a horror movie; the room is painted red with blood rather than the blinding white and the soldiers’ bodies litter the floor, some of them in multiple pieces. A body close to the doors is missing the bottom part of its jaw, another further into the room has its chest caved in, and Nile’s gaze falls onto a pair of legs next to a torso, blood running cold when she realizes they are both two halves of the same person.

She feels a hand on her shoulder and she tears her eyes away from the corpses around her to meet Andy’s gaze. Andy squeezes gently and Nile takes a deep breath and tries to focus on their safety, their escape.

That’s when she looks to the center of the room and she sees Nicky, kneeling over a body. One hand is nestled around the man’s throat and the other brandishes a knife that is already caked in blood and gore. “Where is he?” the words almost blur together, sounding more like a growl than a question.

She watches as the hand around the man’s neck starts to glow blue. Nile hears Booker curse beside her as Nicky is no longer _alone_. She can’t do much but stare ahead as bodies start appearing around Nicky.

One spirit is missing its right arm, only to be carrying said arm in its left, another has a giant hole in its head, skull and brain exposed, a third spirit is crawling on the floor, both its legs reduced to gnarly stumps. They remind Nile of the bodies on the ground but it is so much _worse_ – even if they are doused in blue light, Nile can still _see_ all of the gory details and these spirits shouldn’t be there, should be dead and yet here they were. They live on after death, just as Nile and the others do, but this is a grotesque variation of this sort of immortality that Nile is grateful she doesn’t have.

The corpses that appear turn their heads and stare at Andy, Booker and Nile for a moment. Their eyes are angry – Nile understands their anger as she remembers that these are the spirits of people that have yet to move on to the afterlife. Whatever they are searching for in the group they don’t find because their necks creak as they turn their gaze toward Nicky, toward the man currently in Nicky’s grasp. They take slow, almost zombie-like steps towards the man, each of them grumbling out words in different languages Nile can’t place.

“I will not ask again,” Nicky grits through his clenched teeth. “Where is he?” Nicky’s face gets closer and closer to the soldier with every word until they are almost touching.

The man underneath sputters, his eyes moving from Nicky, to his glowing hand, to the carnage surrounding them, to the spirits slowly encroaching.

Nicky waits for a few moments before bringing the knife to the man’s throat. Just as Nicky moves the knife to slice the soft tissue and end the man’s life, a voice calls to him from the shadows.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the voice tuts. “I think you’ve killed enough of my men for one day.” That voice is familiar and Nile recognizes it immediately – it is a voice that has already caused her family so much pain, a voice that she is sure she will hear in her nightmares for the foreseeable future – _Harper_.

Said man emerges from the shadows, holding a gun to Joe’s head and covering his mouth with his other hand. Nile hears Andy let out a string of curses under her breath as they take in Joe’s state: he has dried blood on his forehead and along his neck, his shirt is almost in tatters, and he has a dazed, distant look in his eyes that tells them that he was under the influence of whatever drugs they had forced into him.

Nicky growls again and, in a flash, jumps off of the man on the ground, turning his body towards Harper. He is slightly crouched, as if he is willing to run to Joe in that instant – he probably already would have barreled into Harper and held Joe in his arms if there were no immediate danger to his beloved.

“Drop the knife – we don’t need any more surprises,” Harper orders as soon as Nicky is turned to him. He pushes the gun further against Joe’s head until the knife clatters to the floor. Harper smirks. “Now, tell your little ghost friends it’s time to go away.”

Nicky complies almost before the words leave Harper’s mouth and his fists stop glowing. He unclenches his hands and rests them at his sides.

“Tell your _other_ friends to drop _their_ weapons now, if you’d be so kind.”

Nile glances at Andy out of the corner of her eye and sends her the silent question of their next step - Nile could easily teleport behind Harper and incapacitate him and then they would be able to get out of there. She feels shaky and exhausted of her power but as Andy said, to get _away_ , they need to get _out_. Andy shakes her head and Nile wants to glare at her harder, asking her _why not_?

Nile hears Nicky call out to them. She looks at him to find his eyes starting back at her. “Please, Nile.”

It is in that moment that Nile remembers that for Nicky and Joe, there is always another layer of worry and protectiveness that comes in battle. They were the only immortals who had come into this life as a pair, they had formed a connection that has lasted a millennium and have a bond that goes deeper than love. They were two halves of a whole, two sides of the same coin – it was almost impossible to have one without the other, they were intrinsically tied together, like the sun and the moon. None of the immortals knew when it would be their time, never knew which death would be the last, but for Joe and Nicky, each death was a possible step closer to permanently losing a part of their own soul, a part they had willingly given to the other hundreds of years ago.

She doesn’t know if she’ll ever understand, ever _have_ that type of connection with another immortal, but she knows that she would probably do the same as Nicky is currently doing if it were someone she cherished in the line of fire. She nods to Nicky and crouches down, her hands up, and she deposits her gun on the ground, kicking it away from her once she rises. Booker and Andy do the same next to her and they stand with their hands up, watching Harper with looks that could kill.

“Ah, much better,” Harper almost sing-songs the words. “Now the fun can begin. Guards!”

In an instant, there are guards flooding into the room from the doors behind them. They pile in until there are at least two dozen of them lining the perimeter of the room, all of their guns trained on Nicky, Nile, Andy and Booker.

“No funny business, or lover boy here gets a shot to the head. I know he’ll come back, but getting riddled with bullets would make your escape quite difficult now, wouldn’t it?” Harper’s eyes never leave Nicky, just as Nicky’s never leave his, even if his eyes will occasionally flicker to Joe.

“Dr. Williams would very much like to resume her testing,” Harper states as a woman emerges from behind the wall of guards, walking towards Nicky with a syringe. “Be a good little mouse and take the drugs.”

Nicky glares at him but makes no move to facilitate the process. Harper has the audacity to laugh. “Now, now, if you do well enough, I may even consider letting your friends have a reprieve from their own testing.”

Slowly and without a single sound, Nicky lifts his head, presenting his neck in a vulnerable position. He feels the woman get near his neck with the needle but just as it breaches his skin, Harper calls out to the doctor. “On second thought, to prove that he really is a nice little mouse, I think we should let him inject the drugs himself.”

The moment the order leaves his lips, the haze from Joe’s eyes clears and his gaze darts around the room. He lands on Nicky and the scientist next to him and he squirms against Harper’s hold. Harper just seems to hold on tighter at the struggle, repeating his order to Nicky.

Nicky looks directly at Joe and hols his gaze and they seem to hold an entire conversation in nothing but their eyes. Without breaking his eyes away from Joe, Nicky takes quick, methodical movements, taking the syringe from the doctor, turning it around so the needle is towards himself, bringing it to his neck, pressing the tip against the vein, pushing the plun-

Harper cries out in pain and shock, tearing his hand away from Joe’s mouth as Joe presumably bit his hand.

“ _Nicolo, stop!_ ” Joe calls out. Nicky halts his movements for a split second, almost taking comfort at hearing Joe’s voice, before he brings the plunger back to his skin. Nicky shakes his head and there is yet another silent exchange that occurs – Nile can almost hear Nicky in her head, “This is something I have to do, Joe.”

Joe curses. He shifts his eyes to look at Harper, unfazed by the gun resting once again against his temple. “I dreamt that you shot your-”

Harper’s eyes grow wide as the words flow out of Joe and he pulls the trigger before he can finish his sentence. Joe’s body slumps to the ground.

Many things happen at once in the seconds following Joe’s death.

First: Nicky’s hand promptly grips the syringe, crushing it in his palm.

Second: The guards in the room ready themselves, seemingly waiting for a signal.

Third: Andy reaches out and drags Nile and Booker towards her, each of their backs to each other.

Fourth: Nicky _snarls_ and his hands start to glow blue once more.

It’s too much too fast and before Nile even has a chance to look around, Harper is yelling out. “Take them out!”

Nile reaches out and grabs Booker and Andy and tries to blink them away. Her fingers just barely brush the hair on Booker’s arm as she feels bullets lodge in her body– one finds a kidney, another hits her spine, a third hits her heart. There is pain for a few seconds, but Nile’s vision goes dark before her body hits the ground.

She comes to with a violent gasp, her body nearly done stitching itself back together and she coughs to try and get the taste of her own blood out of her mouth.

Nile feels hands on her and, remembering the situation before she had died, she forces her elbow back into her attacker. She knows it isn’t enough to incapacitate them or even deter them, but it gives her the quickest moment to get her bearings. She looks to the side and sees Andy and Booker laying on either side of her, their eyes open but they weren’t moving.

The hands grab at her once again and haul her up to her knees. She tries to kick back, to free her arms, to break their hold but the grip tightens. There is a grunt of frustration followed by a grumbling voice, “Stay still you bitch!” Hands grab her by the throat, trying to force her to submit or to pass out – both options were despicable and Nile wouldn’t grant him either.

Nile thrashes as much as she can in his grasp, but she freezes when she hears another voice next to her, “ _Let her go_ ,” it says in Spanish, a slight gurgle accompanying the words. The man holding her sputters and loosens his grip but doesn’t relent, not enough for her to get free. She takes the opportunity to look up and see who had spoken.

It’s a _kid_ – a teenager really, but still much too young to be _a ghost_ – bathed in the same blue light the spirits earlier had been. He stands in front of Nile and her attacker, glaring at the man attempting to subdue her, and repeats his command. Nile gags when she realizes the reason for the gurgle in his voice: blood was pooling into his mouth and Nile could _see it through the hole in his cheek_. Nile sees the strips of muscle, some barely hanging on and other dangling from one end, sees small patches of his jaw poking through the tear in the flesh, sees the blood as it dribbles out of the hole as he speaks.

She can’t help but gag as he spits the words out, the blood pooling down his already bloodstained shirt. She pushes the feeling down and wills herself not to actually get sick. While she can’t be certain the child won’t hurt her, he seemed invested in getting her away from the man currently attacking her, which was help Nile would gladly accept – the spirit was seemingly connected to Nicky, as they all were, and that link somewhat soothed Nile’s worries of malicious intent towards her and her family.

The man holding her recomposes himself and his grip tightens. “I’m not scared of some kid,” he snarls.

The ghost turns his head slightly and for the first time his gaze moves to Nile. It dawns on her in that moment that not everyone has the opportunity nor the time to learn a handful of different languages.

“ _He doesn’t think you’re a threat_ ,” she translates, keeping her voice clear and calm. She turns her gaze to the man above her, mirroring the glare the boy had had on earlier.

The boy growls and rushes forward into the man. Nile uses the temporary surprise of said man to wriggle out of his grasp, falling to the side as the boy barrels into him, sending both to the ground. The boy brings his hands down repeatedly, clawing at the man’s face. The man tries to fight back, but spirits appear on either side of him and restrain his hands at his sides.

The two spirits – one is a middle aged man who is missing an ear and his nose while the other is an elderly woman whose jaw is broken with a piece of glass embedded in her eye – whisper to each other too quietly for Nile to decipher amidst the chaos, but they both look at her and simply nod before turning back to the man below them.

Andy and Booker gasp awake at that moment beside her. She crawls as quickly as she can over to them, ready to defend them against any guards attempting to take them, but none come. Nile looks around and realizes that the guards who had tried were already dead. Two bodies were sprawled on the ground, one behind Booker and the other behind Andy, and both were terribly mutilated - one’s face had been smashed in while the others eyes had been clawed out. Nile shudders at the realization that the man and woman currently holding down her attacker were the culprits of such destruction.

As if on cue, the screams of her previous attacker stop and the three ghosts stand up and turn to the group. Nile knows that they won’t hurt them the moment the kid that saved her nods his head. The ghosts faces morph into snarls before they turn around and run towards a set of guards to their left.

Her eyes follow their movement and it is that moment that Nile takes in the scene playing out in the room.

There are spirits _everywhere_ \- the room is filled to the brim with corpses glowing blue, and the guards stand no chance. The wet squelching sounds mix with the cracking of bone, the growls of the spirits and the screams of the guards. Limbs are being ripped off, eyes getting gouged, bones get broken - the guards’ bodies are being destroyed. Nile almost forgets what colour the room was beforehand because now all there is a sea of red.

Nile scans the room and finds Nicky in the far left corner, walking towards something. As he walks further away from the crowd of corpses, Nile realizes that, while the rest of the room is bathed in the eerie blue glow, there is no glow near Nicky. He steps further and further away from the spirits he’d summoned and yet none follow him.

A voice is alternating between ordering someone to shoot and begging someone not to kill him. It’s a voice Nile has come to know and loathe in the past 24 hours – Harper himself. He is cowering behind a guard who has placed himself between Nicky and his boss. The guard’s gun is trained on Nicky, firing shots off that don’t deter Nicky in the least. The closer Nicky gets, the more the guards hands start to tremble and he must be scared shitless because he does the thing that would give him a painful death: he shoots Joe in the chest to distract Nicky.

She gets Andy and Booker’s attention and motions towards Nicky. A quick nod and the three of them are armed and making their way across the room, careful to watch for any guards not currently occupied by the spirits.

They make it through the room and Nile sees Joe’s body twitching lightly on the ground. He is laying on his side, his hands still zip tied behind him and the fresh bullet to his heart has blood seeping out of his body. She runs and crouches down next to him. Andy breaks the zip tie and rolls him onto his back, his body having now gone still. They can’t do much more for him at the moment other than let his body reset itself.

The guard tries shooting Nicky but as Nicky reaches him, he easily knocks the gun out of his hands. He tries to throw a punch at Nicky but the immortal’s reflexes are much faster. He blocks the man’s fist easily and manages to throw the man to the ground, a cracking sound ringing out as his back hit the hard floor. The guard groans and tries to get up, but Nicky is on him before he can make any progress.

Nicky is holding the gun the man had used to shoot Joe, aims it between his eyes and fires. He looks back to Harper, who is now wedged as far into the corner as he can be now that there’s no barrier between him and Nicky.

Joe gasps awake at that moment and Andy helps him get to his feet. In typical Joe fashion, he calls out to Nicky before he is able to steady his breathing.

Nicky turns to look at them, or rather turns to look at Joe, and Nile gasps. His eyes are bright and blue and _glowing_ from the sclera to the iris and black veins extend outwards, slowly trickling down to his cheeks. “ _Yusuf_ ,” he breathes out, almost too quietly to hear. It’s such a tender voice that it shocks Nile. A voice so tender should not be coming from a man doused in the blood of countless people. “ _Are you alright?”_ The veins on the side of his face recede and the blue glow fades.

Joe nods and leans down to grab a discarded gun from a dead guard. A small smile graces Nicky’s face at that and Joe looks ready to say something else but the moment is interrupted by a scoff.

Despite his precarious position, Harper finds the energy to insult them even further. He slowly rises from his crouched position, leaning against the wall nonetheless. “You’re killing _millions_ of people if you walk out of here – think of all the lives you could save if you weren’t so selfish,” he spits.

The blue glow and veins reappear anew as Nicky turns back to Harper. Nicky snarls at the man in question and his fists glow with a ferocity that it almost hurts to look at them.

One by one, glowing corpses start to appear around them. The red that coated the room was now tinged blue, creating a macabre purple coat of paint. She wasn’t sure it was possible but the room seemed to be full of corpses except for the spaces she and her family currently occupied.

Harper’s eyes scan the room and he resigns himself to his fate, he heaves a breath and closes his eyes.

“No, you do not get to do that,” Nicky barks. He raises a fist towards Harper and suddenly a group of spirits surges forward and grabs the man. They throw him to the ground and pin down his arms and legs, and another even immobilizes his head, prying open his eyelids. “You will die as hopeless and scared as your victims did!”

Nile thought she had all of the puzzle pieces, ones she'd collected and ones her teammates had filled in, and she was ready to see the full picture. But as she watches Nicky advance on the man like a predator waiting to strike, she realizes that she'd been looking at the picture all wrong. She'd imagined many different ways Nicky's powers would manifest themselves in combat, but not this... Never this.

Nile remembers the things she’d seen, the things her and her team had talked about concerning Nicky’s powers: he’d died and communicated with those who had passed on, he’d gotten information on the bad guys by listening to their deceased victims, he’d sensed the death of a child and been able to save another, he’d gotten overwhelmed when over a hundred people had died at once and was surrounded by confused ghosts. All of those things combined made for an ability that Nile isn’t sure she would ever know how to handle – the stench of death always looming over your shoulder, constantly making you aware of your own immortality as you watch the bodies pile up around you but never joining their ranks.

Booker had once said that Nicky’s powers were different because his were passive and Nicky was always using them, but Nile realizes that there is another layer to it: Nicky’s powers are the only ones dependant on other people. Nile can freely teleport herself; Andy can lift whatever she wants whenever she wants, Joe just needs his words to use his powers, and Booker just needs an object to throw or to divert. Nicky’s powers are dependent on death, on people dying. She knows that Nicky doesn’t need the spirits to make him a true warrior, but his powers are not a combat power unless death follows him. She had seen the corpses when they entered this room, but it wasn’t until this moment that it really sunk in that _Nicky_ was the one at the center of them.

Nicky has had a millennium to hone in on his powers and Nile can see why his would be coveted – while the five of them combined are a truly unstoppable force, Nicky is an immovable object. The dead greatly outnumber the living and he has the ability to summon them at will. An army of spirits that have yet to find peace, that cannot be killed, that can only grow in numbers, is a terrifying thought.

Nicky reaches Harper and crouches down by the man’s head. “You asked me if they were still around,” he says in an almost frustratingly monotone voice. Nile knows Nicky isn’t getting any kind of satisfaction from this violence– he is simply punishing those who have wronged him, wronged his family. “here is your answer.”

The rest of the spirits close in, passing through the group – an action that sends shivers down their spines as the ghostly forms appear on the other side of them.

Harper _screams_. There are fingers clawing at every inch of his body, there are hands going _into_ his body. The ghosts leave no area of his body untouched – they rip and shred and break and twist and gouge and pull and eviscerate and _destroy_.

Nicky doesn’t move, simply stands above the man writhing on the floor. He stays still even as the ghostly blue forms pass through him, not flinching for a moment.

The group is frozen in place as the screams die down before dying out completely after a small gurgle. Nicky unclenches his hands, and the blue light dissipates. The ghosts start disappearing soon after, fading out as gracefully as they’d appeared. The room felt strangely big and empty when they were all gone, the five immortals were the only ones left standing amidst a sea of mangled bodies.

Nicky breathes in deep and Nile watches as the veins recede, the bright blue glow of his eyes fades to reveal his usual blue-green ones. He runs to Joe and runs his hands over his head, his face, his arms.

“I’m fine, Nicolo,” Joe reassures him, reaching up to lay his hand over Nicky’s. “I’m just exhausted.”

Nile can understand the feeling – the adrenaline of the fight is wearing off and the heavy weight of exhaustion is slowly creeping into her bones. She looks at Andy and Booker who seem to be realizing the same thing.

“Nile, do you have it in you for one last jump?” Andy asks.

“Even if it’s just outside so we can get to a car,” Booker adds. “I can check the cameras in the hallway, there must be some that face outdoors.”

Nile nods and follows him back to the wall of monitors. Andy joins them, leaving Nicky and Joe alone. The three of them scan the monitors, searching for one that would give them easy access to freedom. They also take care to be on the lookout for any stragglers still in the building – the less people that knew about them and their abilities, the better.

Booker points to a camera in the top left corner: it overlooks the front of the building and pans back and forth, surveying the street. “That’s probably going to be our best shot.”

“I’ll go grab Joe and Nicky, drag them out here if I need to,” Andy says before slipping back towards the duo. There was a light teasing in her words but Nile understands and appreciates her intent. Nile is exhausted and trying to jump now is made much easier by having the visual aid right in front of her to avoid any slipups.

A few moments later, Andy walks back in with Joe and Nicky and the group is reunited. Nile raises one hand and rests it on Booker’s shoulder and Andy’s with the other. She takes one last look at the camera feed, closes her eyes and blinks her and her family to safety.

The street is almost eerily empty but one glance at a nearby clock tells that it’s still too early in the morning for many people to be out.

Booker calls out to the group, pointing to a minivan that was parked a little ways down the street. He checks the vehicle and promptly uses his elbow to break through the glass and unlock the door.

Within five minutes, they have the car hotwired, thanks to Andy – “Where did you learn to hotwire a car?” “I’ve learned to decipher a thing or two about _some_ technology, Nile.” – and they pile into the van, driving off just as Nile closes the door behind her.

Booker volunteers to take first shift, which Nile is grateful for because she will be the first to admit she isn’t quite sure _where_ they are, and Andy sits next to him in shotgun, giving him directions every so often before sitting back silently. Nile is in the middle row and she stretches her legs – she has the row all to herself so she can’t see the harm in stretching out her tense muscles. Joe and Nicky are in the back row, sitting shoulder to shoulder, their hands resting atop each other.

They mostly ride in silence and it gives Nile time to reflect. She’d learned many things about her teammates the past few months, especially Nicky. Hell, she’s learned more about Nicky and his powers in the past week than ever. It was a lot to take in, but Nile was satisfied in a way. She had known there were blank spots in her understanding of Nicky’s powers, redacted parts that he hadn’t been comfortable to share with her for whatever reason, but now that she knew, it was as if the veil was lifted and she could see his actions in a new light.

Nile had joked with Andy when she’d first become immortal, saying that the five of them should start a band. She’d made a similar joke when they had discussed their powers, saying that it would make more sense to start their very own Justice League – the small smile that she saw Andy try to hide tells Nile that she may have actually understood that reference.

Immortality was still a concept Nile was trying to wrap her head around, no matter how many times she died and came back, or how many times her wounds would heal in the blink of an eye. To think that these people she now calls family have been around for hundreds of years to millennia. She thinks it will come with time, the sort of ease with which they move through life, the acceptance of this new normal.

Their powers had added another layer of uniqueness to her and her family that she hadn’t expected – as if immortality wasn’t enough, they had been given honest to god _superpowers_. Nile remembers that first day when she had discovered her power, it made everything feel like a fever dream. They’d learned to focus their powers to utilize them to further their goal of helping and healing the world, one conflict at a time.

Nile yawns and she knows it’s a matter of time before she has to give into her exhaustion. She makes sure to take one last look at her team, even if to appease the small part of her brain that wants to, no, _needs_ to know that they’re alright and with her still. Joe’s head is resting on Nicky’s shoulder, the latter’s hand running through his curls every so often. Nicky himself has his head turned to look out the window, his attention seemingly elsewhere. Andy and Booker are having a quiet discussion in the front seat about their next safehouse. They slip into multiple different languages that Nile is too tired to keep track of.

The pull of sleep begins to weigh heavily on Nile as the adrenaline from the day’s events fades. She can feel her eyes start to droop and she doesn’t fight it, resting her head on the cool glass of the window. She smiles as she drifts off, finally able to say something she’d questioned for so long with absolute certainty:

Each of them has a power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Graphic depctions of violence [I will be adding this warning to the story in general], gore, temporary character death.   
> (also ft, a blink and you'll miss it reference to fast and furious and a stupid callback to an earlier chapter because the cooking channel was on)
> 
> And with that we've come to the end... The ending isn't 100% what I was envisioning but I'm a sucker for book ends in media, and this was already getting super long (8.6k - this chapter, if I hadn't split it would've been like half the fic by itself haha). Each chapter ended up being longer than the last as the ideas pured out of me. 
> 
> Can you believe I thought this would originally be a small 2k?? This entire idea started because of this last scene, it was one I wanted to write very badly and it all spilled out from there, so that's how we ended up at 25k words! 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who commented and dropped kudos - it is all very much appreciated. I'm glad you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I definitely plan to expore this universe further, have a handful of ideas for futur fics, so until next time! 
> 
> If you ever wanna talk about this universe, about TUA or TOG, come chat with me over on tumblr (same name there as here!)

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Legend:The Black Garden from Destiny. Full quote is "The Ghost said to me: You are a dead thing made by a dead power in the shape of the dead. All you will ever do is kill. You do not belong here. This is a place of life."
> 
> Tags will be updated as chapters are posted. Not beta-ed.
> 
> Come talk to me on Tumblr (same username there - just can't figure out how to link it right now!)


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